Students, faculty, and staff often find themselves searching for quick, cheap, and healthy foods to bring on campus.

For most people, it’s hard to make time in their schedules to cook meals; it’s expensive to buy meals around campus everyday; and it’s easier to settle for a cheap burger and some fries.

Meal prepping is a great way to save time, money, eat healthy, and it’s eco-friendly. To meal prep, someone would cook a large amount of food and portion them in containers for the week so that every meal is ready to go.

Heather Cordovil is a part-time instructor for the health science and athletics department with a master’s degree in exercise science and encourages students to meal prep for the week.

“When I build my plates I think about a good carbohydrate, a lean protein, and some time of vegetable or fruit,” Cordovil said.

Some good carbohydrates include brown rice and whole wheat pasta. Meat, fish and eggs are some examples of proteins that are beneficial to our bodies.

Trail mix, cheese & crackers and apples & peanut butter are also good snacks to bring to school because they are very quick, portable, cheap and healthy alternatives.

Rebecca Rimmer is a 20-year-old at El Camino with a major in photojournalism that brings lunches to school and often uses the microwaves at school located in the Student Activities building.

“On the days I have time to use the microwave I bring leftovers and when I don’t have time I’ll bring a sandwich or a cold salad,” Rimmer said. “I eat kind of slow so, it’s a lot faster for me to bring my own food than to buy food and I also save money that way.

Anh Tran is a 22-year-old at El Camino with a major in nutrition and has noticed that some students on campus prefer to purchase food.

“I see people eat a lot of fast-food like hamburgers and fries,” Tran said.

Many people buy to-go food and ready-made meals to eat on campus. They usually purchase them from the cafe’s on campus or from nearby restaurants like McDonald’s, Ramona’s, Subway, Del Taco, etc.

“It can get expensive,” Cordovil said. “(But) if you’re able to plan ahead and make your own sandwich, that’s going to be a lot cheaper than even a five-dollar footlong…”