Davidson Students Bite into Food Instagrams

If you are anything like me, your Instagram feed is loaded with drool-worthy food posts. Ogling over food posts has become my most recent passion and hobby in life, and I am loving everything delicious moment of it. 

Food posts have grown with the Instagram app over the past years and months. Instagram users all love to see videos of food being made and devoured. Established and more well-known accounts are racking up hundreds of thousands of followers and are even becoming a large part of the restaurant and food culture in major cuisine hot spots around the world. So of course, some Davidson students have taken it upon themselves to create their very own foodie accounts. Here are some Davidson student food accounts you should throw the follow: 

@peas4paige

Paige Albert, class of 2018, runs a very health conscious food Instagram that is cutely named, @peas4paige. If you scroll through Albert’s Instagram, you will find delicious green and balanced meals–many of which she whips up in the limited space of her dorm room. Because eating well in college can be hard to accomplish, Paige has found her food Instagram world to be a place to go for insight.   

“I post often, for sure way too often, but I love posting and sharing my meals,” says Albert. She admits that she is a bit of an impulse “poster,” but she advises other food-stagrammers to post what makes them happy! Albert loves being able to share food advice and inspiration, especially since she receives so much from the food Instagram community. 

Eating healthy, in particular, “eating clean,” is something that Albert has always aimed for, and being part of a community via the Instagram platform has been a refreshing and positive experience. 

“I started a food Instagram because I wanted to follow how people with similar dietary restricts as I ate in college. I wanted to see how other college students were getting creative with dorm room cooking and eating and fitness,” says Albert. 

Being inspired by new ideas and food concepts is Albert’s favorite part of having a food Instagram. “[I love] logging on when I wake up every morning and scroll[ing] through my feed to decide what I want for breakfast…” says Albert. 

@eat2live_live2eat_ 

Dodi Allocca, class of 2018, who runs the account, @eat2live_live2eat_, started her food Instagram about a year ago after seeing food Instagrams popping up all over her own feed. Beyond just Instagram, Allocca is very interested in food studies. Allocca is an Environmental Studies major and is very interested in sustainability and how that ties into food consumption. 

“[My] account itself has really evolved over the past year, considering I went from gluten free to gluten free and vegan to eating almost everything,” says Allocca. Allocca still tries to eat dairy free and plant based as personal dietary preferences. Also, Allocca is now abroad in Perugia, Spain, where she is part of a food studies program. During this program, she gets to learn about food and food consumption, make and learn about food daily, and try different foods while on special trips. 

Since food is such an important part of Allocca’s life, she thoroughly enjoys posting on her food Instagram. It is a part of who she is. 

“I really like using my food Instagram as an archive of the food I eat. It helps me remember recipes that I liked and meals I got at restaurants. It’s been especially helpful while studying abroad in this aspect, and I kind of look at it as a food diary,” says Allocca. 

Some food-programming tips Allocca has for future food Instagrammers: take pictures of your food from above (a trick she learned from Bon Appetit magazine’s article “Food Culture”). Allocca also recommends following @college.foodie and @thefeedfeed, some of her favorite food accounts.

@commonscuisine 

Miss. Commons Cuisine, (or CC, which is how we will refer to them since they requested to stay anonymous), posts pictures solely of Vail Commons meals. 

“Everybody loves Commons, so I thought this account would be a cute and funny way to broadcast that appreciation,” says CC. 

The goal of this food Instagram is to make Commons meals more exciting and to show that even simple Commons food can be visually appealing and yummy. CC strongly believes in the phrase, “we eat with our eyes, not our stomachs.” “My favorite thing about having a food Instagram is that it enables me to eat more aesthetically pleasing, exciting food. It’s a lot more fun to eat a pretty meal than a sloppy one,” says CC.

CC posts her own photos of Commons meals but also receives about two to three submitted photos a week from fellow peers in her direct messages on Instagram. 

For CC, the keys to having a successful and thriving Instagram account is good lighting and loyal followers. According to CC, followers who interact and contribute to an account make it more interesting and fun to be a part of. 

@veggiekc

For Kacey Merlini, class of 2017, food Instagramming began as a personal way to keep track of her food journey.  “One of my friends encouraged me to do it because I never write down recipes and forget about meals I had made, so it would give me a place to look back on them,” says Merlini.  Merlini aims towards eating healthy but still simple and easy to make. She wants to show college students like her and other people with busy and fast moving lives that you can still eat clean and delicious food.  “It …makes me so happy when my friends send me pictures of stuff they made that was inspired by something I posted, because that was really why I started @veggiekc in the first place. I love that people enjoy my food and that I can make it easier for them to cook and eat healthy,” say, Merlini. Merlini loves to set up her plate of food artfully and is drawn towards brighter, more exciting vibrant foods. She wants to show people that eating healthy can go way beyond just “grilled chicken and steamed vegetables.”  Merlini admits that she was embarrassed at first but has realized that this is something that she really loves and has now learned to embrace it! Merlini recommends and loyally follows accounts such as @chickpeainthecity, @ohsheglows, @realfoodology, and @balancewithb.

So if you are hungry, go stalk these accounts. If you are not hungry, go stalk these accounts, because you soon will be! Happy eating. *I mean scrolling. 

If you are interested in writing an article for Her Campus Davidson, contact us at davidson@hercampus.com or come to our weekly meeting Tuesday at 8pm in the Morcott Room.  

• clean eating
• food
• food ideas
• food instagram
• recipes