How to Get Free Food Tricks For Student

Let's start off by finding some shit to eat. If you can't find free food on a college campus then you really must not be keeping your eyes open. 

Unfortunately, all too many schools are now forcing students into mandatory meal plans, which you can nonetheless try to weasel out of by taking one of three usual routes: a) dietary/medical restrictions (will require detailed diet plans/notes from a dietician/doctor), b) religio-cultural beliefs (will require letters from your religious/cultural 'leader'), or c) personal convictions (will require you writing a substantial letter explaining your beliefs, as well as providing supporting letters or testaments to your credibility/'the strengths of your convictions' by family members or/and former teachers). 

The goal of taking the third route is to point out how the food served on campus, and thus the college meal plan, is contradictory to your beliefs (perhaps something along the lines of you only supporting organic, fair trade food produced by unionized workers...). Contact whoever's responsible for your meal plans for further college-specific information. Anyway, here are a few tips on scoring some free grub, college style.

Clubs. Look around any flyer boards for announcements of any upcoming club meetings. Towards the start of the semester chances are your local college will also have a club or student organization fair of sorts to get the new students interested in signing up for various clubs. Many of the clubs will have email lists on their tables, and will be all too thrilled to add your name to their spam list. Sign up for as many as possible! Each time a club meeting or activity is announced you'll then get email. More often than not, to entice more attendance, you'll also see the key words "free food." Show up, mingle, and get some free eatin'. Colleges have hundreds of different clubs, so don't worry, you'll hardly have to keep sticking to the same ones.

Special Events. As long as you're looking at flyers, look for some announcing any upcoming events or speakers. Key phrases to look for include "reception to follow," "lunch to be provided," "refreshments served," and so on. Browsing to the college's website, check the online calendar for a complete list of upcoming events. There are many happenings each day, so chances are you'll stumble onto at least one that will be serving free food. Similarly, free booze can be procured by looking around for any upcoming party flyers, or the stereotypical 'wine and cheese' events (yeah, they really do have those).

Deliveries. Doubtlessly you've often seen food delivery cars darting around campus from the local eateries. You've also probably noticed that many times the vehicles are left empty, as the deliver dude waits to gain entry into a dorm or is busy sprinting up the steps to the fourth floor of wherever. Simply open the car door, grab some yet-to-be-delivered goodies and take off. Can't find a delivery car around anywhere when you've got the munchies? Then up the ante a bit by trying the age old con (Abbie popularized this one in Steal This Book, available online at http://www.tenant.net/Community/steal/steal.html) of taking the liberty of calling up an order and giving a particularly inconvenient location (say, the top floor of the dorm furthest from the parking lot, or/and the address of that one kid whom you don't particularly hold in high esteem), and then raid the (hopefully unlocked) car while your dummy order is being delivered.

Cafeterias. Ah, college cafeterias. Who doesn't love these delightful delicatessens serving delectable delicacies, good not only for their free food, but for free silver and dinnerware? There are essentially two types of cafeterias (pay as you enter and pay as you leave), and your techniques should, as always, be custom-tailored to suit your particular environment.

Pay as you enter: If you're charged before you're allowed entry into the cafeteria, the obvious solution is to find an alternate entry point. The thing is that after eating most folks have to be able to leave, and the exits are usually left unguarded. They may, at best, be locked to anyone trying to open them from the outside, in which case you can just wait for someone to come out. If you're ever questioned, simply utter something along the lines of "I forgot my backpack," and keep walking without pause. Remember that pausing acknowledges and therefore perpetuates the illusory authority of whoever's telling you to stop in the first place...

Pay as you leave. Much like you enter through the exit in pay as you enter eateries, with the pay as you leave ones you can just turn right around after getting your food and leave through the entrance. Hold an old receipt in your hand that you found lying around or in the trash as a credibility prop, and if questioned, a simple "I already paid" retort should suffice, as you once again keep walking without slowing down. You can also try to find alternate exits, such as walking through the dining hall's kitchen (don't worry about the workers in there, they (usually) don't bite) into another part of the university. Look around and explore.

For both scenarios it may behoove you to find out the exact hours that the cafeteria is open, and show up in the midst of the rush hour, so as to be able to blend in with the crowd.

Culinary schools. OK, not exactly free, but pretty f**king cheap. Culinary schools often offer full restaurant-quality (read: fancy as f**k), three course meals to the public for something like less than ten dollars a meal. If your local college doesn't have a culinary or cooking department, look up a specialty culinary school near you at http://www.cookingschools.com, or any other similar directory you can find through your favourite search engine. Then just call them up and ask if they offer meals to the public, what times, the cost, and so on.

Gardens and Co-ops. Many colleges have student-run fruit and vegetable gardens, typically being vaguely associated with the school's environmental science program or whatnot. Look around the college's website (or just keep your eyes open on campus) to see if your local college indeed has one, and then pay it a little after hours visit to get your fill of some fresh pickings. Some colleges also run food collectives or co-ops that sell organic foods, and will let you buy shit at a discount if you start volunteering for them. Though if you're interested in genuinely free co-op food, something that's not strictly college-related (and so I won't go into it in any depth), that you could check out nonetheless, is your local Food Not Bombs collective Get some cool stuff here www.foodnotbombs.net