A 1.5kg broiler chicken yields just over a kilogram after its entrails are removed. Cut into 20 pieces, each portion weighs around 50 grams with bones, leaving only 30 to 35 grams of meat. This is the sole source of animal protein in a typical Jahangirnagar University dining hall meal.
Fish portions are even smaller because fish costs more than broiler chicken.
Students thus receive just 60 to 70 grams of fish or meat across two meals, against the Bangladesh government’s nutritional recommendation of 150 to 350 grams of animal protein sources, including fish, meat and eggs, daily.
Lentils offer little reassurance. The dal is so watery that it has become a subject of jokes, raising questions about its nutritional value.
Despite nutritionists stressing the importance of a substantial breakfast, university dining halls provide none, leaving students dependent on two meals a day in a world where three meals are the norm.
A large proportion of students at the fully residential university rely on hall dining facilities, where each meal costs Tk30. The menu includes rice, lentils, fish, vegetables or mashed vegetables, alongside a fried egg or a piece of fish or meat.
Doctors and nutritionists recommend 2,000 to 3,000 kilocalories daily for adult men, depending on their build, and 1,600 to 2,400 for women.
After reviewing the university’s dining hall diet chart, nutritionist Rebeka Arju told TIMES, “A single meal barely provides 470 to 550 kilocalories. With two such meals a day and a makeshift breakfast in the morning, the total daily intake amounts to only 1,300 to 1,500 kilocalories.”
She warned that the daily shortfall of around 900 to 1,100 calories could threaten students’ physical and mental health.
About 70 to 75 per cent of the meals’ calories come from simple carbohydrates in rice, with negligible protein.
Prolonged deficiencies of protein, micronutrients and essential fats can disrupt the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. The consequences include fatigue, muscle loss, poor concentration, memory decline, indecisiveness, depression and irritability, potentially undermining students’ intellectual development.
Dissatisfaction with food quality and taste also drives many students to eat elsewhere.
Pritilata Hall student Sumaiya Akter said, “The dal is excessively watery most of the time and has hardly any taste. On days when khichuri is served, it is so soft that it hardly seems fit to eat.”
She added that fish sometimes tastes raw because it is not cooked properly.
Another student of the hall, Iffat Raisa Nuha, said attendance at the dining hall remained low, mainly because of poor food quality and taste.
Although improvements occasionally attract more students, they rarely last. Low attendance also complicates the purchasing of ingredients and cooking arrangements, further undermining food quality and creating a cycle of declining standards and participation.
Hasan, a resident of Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam Hall, said, “The dal is as thin as water, and the pieces of fish and meat are small. Rice, mashed vegetables and fried vegetables may fill the stomach, but they do not provide adequate nutrition.”
To supplement his diet, he occasionally buys extra fish or chicken from the canteen to eat with rice from the dining hall.
Hall Provost Mohammad Abdur Razzaq acknowledged nutritional deficiencies, particularly in protein and fibre, citing inadequate funding.
“The total budget is Tk30. But a single piece of chicken costs around Tk12. When the costs of rice, dal, vegetables, mashed vegetables and cooking are added, it becomes difficult to increase either the quantity or quality of the food,” he said.
Asked about possible solutions, he said Tk50 meals were being considered on a trial basis, potentially allowing larger portions of fish or meat, additional vegetables or two eggs.
Husne Mobarak, health and food safety secretary of the recently expired Jahangirnagar University Central Students’ Union (Jucsu) committee, said the Tk30 allocation no longer reflected current market prices.
He favoured raising the price to Tk50 after consulting students, provided the quality and quantity of food also improved.
“If the price goes up but the quality of food remains unchanged, students will not benefit,” he said.
An election pledge also remains unfulfilled.
Before the Jucsu election a year ago, the Islami Chhatra Shibir-backed panel promised a 50 per cent subsidy on dining hall meals, but the elected committee failed to deliver.
Mobarak said the committee had discussed the proposal with university authorities. Its calculations showed that subsidising Tk30 meals by 50 per cent for 12,000 students would cost Tk13.14 crore annually.
Rakibul Islam, outgoing vice-president of the Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam Hall union, said an initiative to increase meal prices slightly and improve food quality had failed because some students insisted on preserving the Tk30 price as a long-standing dining hall “tradition”.
