Chartwells worked hard over the summer to provide NSU students with an improved dining service to go along with their meal plans. As much as I appreciate the varied options and the new dining set up and all the work that went into it, I rarely have the time to enjoy it or actually enjoy my meal.
I’m working 20 hours a week on campus and taking five classes this semester; three classes at the Oceanographic Center and the other two at the main campus. This generally is not a problem until I’m hungry. Almost every day I find myself missing either lunch or dinner service at the UC and breakfast regularly. So I’m forced to either grab something fast from Outtakes to bring with me to class or eating something from Flight Deck late at night.
The hours of operation for the lunch and dinner service are 11-2:30 p.m. and 4:30- 9 p.m.That leaves a two-hour gap between each service, which is usually the time I’m heading off to a class at the main campus or just getting back from the Oceanographic Campus. Forcing me to either pick up a small sandwich or snack from Outtakes to take with me on-the-go or eat a greasy meal from Flight Deck that always takes me a good 30-40 minutes to recieve after purchase.
This is a daily occurrence of almost always being hungry or just snacking on empty calories all day. Yes, I can bring a bagged lunch and pre-pack all of my meals and most of the time I have to resort to that. But I live on the main campus, which means I have a $1,500 declining meal plan that I have to spend, which at this point, is looking more like a savings account. I have priorities and responsibilities at work and in my classes. I don’t have the luxury to be waiting on food to be prepared for me or constantly making my own food and wasting my declining balance.
When I do find an hour or so of time that coincides with the hours of operation there always seems to be a long line of people or the food I want to eat is being restocked or another batch is being prepared which I have to wait for. At this point, I’m sick of eating a pre-packaged sandwich at Outtakes. I want fresh food and I paid plenty of money on my declining balance to get it. This isn’t an issue of inconvenience anymore, my health is starting to get affected by it. I’m constantly getting stomach pains from hunger and headaches which make it hard to concentrate in class which is the only reason I’m even at NSU, to begin with.
I understand there isn’t much that can be done with the hours of operation, there is a method to the madness that I’m not aware of. But I just want something to eat that’s healthy and will sustain my body with nutrients for a few hours. If Outtakes can have more meal-like options that are constantly stocked or if Flight Deck’s wait-times and grease-free options can be improved I would be eternally grateful.
