Hailley Brune – Opinion Columnist

Most of us are aware that the hours for the cafeteria are a little off this year. The Caf closes at 8:30pm this semester when it used to close around 10:30pm or later. A problem arises around this as a lot of STEM labs and music rehearsals lasting until 8pm or later. As well as people’s work schedules that might go until after the caf is closed. As someone who’s schedule doesn’t end until 8 pm some days, it can be a bit of a hassle. These adjusted hours makes the food options limited, or even nonexistent for those who have dietary restrictions. Mistakes happen and that’s totally fine, it’d just be appreciated if someone had fixed it. Gustavus students, who are notoriously busy, know that sometimes crazy hours like 8 PM is the only time we have to catch a break. Personally, I have a break around 11:30 where I can get something from the STEAMery, but on my busy days that’s the only time I have to eat. With the Caf closing around the same time or after my classes are over it, takes out an option for me to eat again later in the day if I wanted. Other students probably have an even harder time finding time to get in meals. I personally don’t have much of a problem eating once a day, but a lot of people need to eat multiple times a day. They’re used to eating often and getting hungry often. It’s hard to focus if you’re hungry, whether it’s from not having enough time or options.
There are other options and preparations that can be made, of course. You could get food earlier in the week and have them saved for those long days. Or you could buy from the grocery section, and you can have those for a meal in your room. Except a majority of the time it’s empty, and once it gets filled it empties out pretty quickly. But it’s an option sometimes. Let’s say you take the L and eat once a day, or eat what you have in your room. At the end of the month those days of not eating much, or not spending that Caf money will add up. Which will end up causing the regular groceries to be even more scarce, especially around the last week or two of the month. It’s all a bit of a snowball effect. There’s also two cafe options on campus, the courtyard cafe and the steamery. Though the STEAMery closes at 2pm, and the Courtyard closes at 3pm, and then opens between 6-8:30pm again. Which might help some students and give other options, but it still closes at the same time as the Caf. For me the STEAMery makes it so I’m able to get in at least one meal a day, but not everybody is in Nobel all day. The cafes are convenient when you’re in their vicinity.
Some ways that I think could help, would obviously be to lengthen the Caf hours. I understand that it’s understaffed, though, and there might not be enough money attributed to keeping it open at it’s normal hours. So, some other solutions to get us through the semester. Having the regular grocery parts of the Caf stocked more often would be very helpful, so there’s things that can be stored in people’s rooms for meals or snacks. Making sure there are a lot of milk options so people can have cereal in their rooms no matter what type of milk they need.
Now, I fully recognize this as a first world problem, and that at the end of the day it’s not a big deal, but it can be frustrating. We don’t know where all of our students are coming from, though. Sometimes it can be easy to write off a meal because it’s not easily attainable, or because it’s less work to just skip it. Which isn’t a healthy mindset we want to indirectly suport. We want to encourage consistent eating, food security, and accessibility. That’s one of the reasons we pay for the meal plans isn’t it? To make sure all of our students are able to get food while they do the college grind. I just hope to see this mistake not be repeated next year, and that they’ll be able to figure out the bugs in the system. Some of my greatest memories from 2020 was getting ice cream at 10pm from the Caf, and I’d like