During my first weekend at Quinnipiac University, I rolled out of bed and headed to the dining hall, not paying much attention to the time. When I got there I was surprised to see that the entrance was barred with a metal curtain; as a self-proclaimed “night person,” I knew it wasn’t early. This was my first experience with an issue that would inconvenience me all semester: the dining hall doesn’t open until 10 a.m. on the weekends.
I was there at about 9:45 a.m., and I wasn’t alone. Several other students were counting down the minutes until they could purchase any food for breakfast. When an employee came out to open we all eagerly swarmed the turnstiles.
The next weekend I went through sorority recruitment and we had to report to our meeting spot at 8 a.m. Many of us ended up skipping breakfast because there was nowhere for us to get it. Or we would have to bring granola bars that barely carried us to lunch.
This wasn’t simply the excitement of a new semester starting either. Nearly every weekend I go to the dining hall around opening and there are always students like me who are awake and hungry. Some may believe that as college kids, we all like to sleep in. But the reality is that not everyone does. And yet there are no options for us to purchase food.
I’m not saying that the dining hall needs to open at 6 a.m. I’d wager very few college students, myself included, are up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, but opening just an hour or two earlier would benefit many of us.
Breakfast is often referred to as the most important meal of the day — and for good reason. It helps replenish your blood sugar and kick-starts your metabolism.
The gym opens at 9 a.m. on weekends. Yet the smoothie and shake bar in the Recreation and Wellness Center, ShakeSmart, doesn’t open until noon these days. Fueling up on food is crucial to having energy, building strength and recovering better from a workout.
This is a big problem for Quinnipiac’s 538 Division I athletes as well, many of whom have morning practices on the weekends. They don’t have anywhere to purchase food either. At other Division I universities, such as the University of Virginia, there is an entire separate dining hall for athletes to ensure that they get the nutrition they need when they need it.
The lack of food availability is not limited to the Mount Carmel Campus either. On York Hill, the dining hall also opens at 10 a.m. When my mom came and visited me, she wanted to see York so we ended up waiting half an hour before we could get breakfast.
The dining hall runs on pretty limited hours in general on the weekend. It opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For dinner, this isn’t as much of an issue, as The Bobcat Den (The Rat) is open until midnight. But there are no breakfast alternatives — Starbucks doesn’t open until 10 a.m. either and The Rat at 3 p.m.
One potential solution to this issue is offering grab-and-go breakfast items, or pre-packaged breakfast foods and fruit that wouldn’t require cooking. This way there would only need to be a few dining hall workers coming in earlier.
There are enough hungry students like myself who deserve a place to get breakfast on the weekends.
