Jan. 28, 2015
By Jerome Boettcher | Subscribe to Commodore Nation
After morning lifts or before practice, Cole Hardin often finds himself in need of a nutritional boost.
Fortunately for the freshman on the football team and all of Vanderbilt’s 340 student-athletes he doesn’t have to search long to find what he needs. In fact, he doesn’t even have to leave the McGugin Center.
Starting in November, the Vanderbilt athletics department instituted a student-athlete refueling station on the first floor of McGugin that provides Hardin and his fellow Commodores with a variety of nutritional supplementation.
Formerly a conference room, now sits a refrigerator full of yogurt, chicken salad sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, grape tomatoes, hummus and chocolate milk. Pretzels, nuts, chips, apples, bananas, granola bars and dried fruit line the room.
“It is nice to have a quick snack or quick lunch or breakfast if you can’t get it elsewhere,” Hardin said. “There are a lot of good healthy options. I think this athletic department is always doing stuff to benefit their athletes and this just proves another way they’re trying to help us out.”
The refueling station, which is open twice a day for four hours, is a initiative by Vanderbilt athletic officials to offer another food option since the NCAA changed legislation in August.
Previously, scholarship student-athletes received three meals a day (21 for the week) or a food stipend for off-campus athletes. There was a restriction on how many meals athletic departments could provide to student-athletes. For example, they could give them bagels as a snack but slather it with peanut butter and that counted as a meal.
Now, scholarship student-athletes and walk-ons can receive unlimited meals and snacks in conjunction with their athletics participation.
“With the change in NCAA legislation we are now able to provide nutritional supplementation options to help meet the often challenging nutritional needs of our student-athletes,” associate director of athletics Lori Alexander said. “After reviewing all options, the administration felt that a refueling station in our main athletic building would be the most effective and convenient option for student-athletes. That gives them the opportunity to easily refuel during the critical 30-minute post-workout window after early morning or mid-day workouts, grab a good pre-workout snack on the way to their locker room or grab a snack to eat between classes.”
Taylor Elliott, a senior on the soccer team, says the convenience of the refueling station really appeals to her.
“It makes me super happy because then I don’t have to go to Munchie Mart (on the other side of campus) before practice,” Elliott said. “It is super convenient. Right now I am getting my lunch here so it’s pretty easy. And it is right before my practice time so that’s perfect.”
The refueling station is funded by the athletic department and is offered through dining services.
The room will be stocked full through the end of the semester. Over Christmas break, Alexander and the athletic department’s dietitian, Jessica Bennett, will analyze the program and decide if the hours need to be tweaked, what was a hit and if anything should be added to the menu to satisfy the needs of the student-athletes.
“The refueling station provides a wide variety of nutritional options for the wide variety of needs of our student-athletes,” Alexander said. “It includes some higher calorie options for those athletes who fight hard to keep weight on. It also includes other lower calorie healthier options, and also options for those with special dietary needs (such as soy milk and gluten-free options) that may be hard to meet at some of our regular campus stores.”
