The Scavenger's Guide to Princeton

Princeton University commands an incredible set of resources. As an independent student/borderline freegan, I have discovered the fun way that most of them are edible.

Free food is all around you, just waiting to be discovered and scoopsed. With a little ingenuity and a total lack of shame, you, too, can survive at a first-rate university on third world personal resources!

A Few Helpful Tips For Releasing the Hunter Within--Have diverse friends!This is rule number one of the Ivy League hunter-gatherer: almost every ethnicity has its own cuisine, and, to go along with it, their own student group. Coincidence? I think not.--Sign up for EVERYTHING.Remember when you went a little crazy at the Student Activities Fair freshman year? Still receiving 30 e-mails a day from organizations that you have no intention of joining? Ever? Don't despair! Those e-mails are a veritable crib sheet of potential raids. With a little insincerity and/or a lot of eye contact avoidance, you, too, can use people you peripherally know  for the calories that you so desperately crave.--Make the university work for you! Point actually has a one-click filter to find events with free food. Princeton WANTS to train your mercenary instincts. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.--Develop your beat!A great man once said, "You can find some of the free food all of the time. You can find all of the free food some of the time. But you can't find all of the free food all of the time." And that's okay. You have to be ready for minor setbacks. But if you routinely look in high-traffic study break areas (Residential College common rooms, Frist South Lawn, Frist Welcome Desk, Frist Anything, etc.), you've got to find something sometime, right? --And always remember: Studying study breaks is a great study break!Which do you prefer: getting work done, or the thrill of the hunt? Take this post as a case in point...Happy Hunting!