Students left on campus during Easter Break faced limited food choices

By Dylan Kirchner
Triangle contributor

Over Easter Break, food options on Wingate University’s campus were limited to only Freshens and the Klondike Market, leaving many of the students left on campus frustrated with the lack of choices.

Many students are required to stay on campus over breaks for practices if they are athletes who are in-season. Various men’s and women’s teams had their meals coordinated over break, including acrobatics/tumbling, baseball, golf, lacrosse, softball, tennis track and triathlon.

In addition to the athletes who must remain on campus for holiday breaks, many other students are unable travel home for a four-day break because they live too far away to go home. Most all international students stay on campus during breaks held during semesters.

For athletes, meals over break are coordinated by teams and therefore do not have an extra cost associated with them. However, for students who are not athletes, the additional cost for an Easter Break Meal Plan is added to their account.

According to an email sent out to Wingate students, students enrolled in the Easter Break Meal Plan will have two meal swipes daily at Freshens and the Klondike Market at a per-meal cost of $8.93. This is an extra cost to the base meal plan that costs a minimum of $1,825 per semester.

During Easter Break, Freshens and the Klondike Market were open on March 29-30 from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. On April 1, Freshens was open from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For the duration of Easter break, the W.T. Harris Dining Hall was not open. Additionally, none of the food options on campus were open on March 31.

“The cafeteria costs $800 to run per hour,” said Director of Dining Services Gerald Gatto, who works for Wingate’s contracted food-service provider, Compass Group USA. “Of those that fill out the stay form for meals over breaks, only 22 percent actually come in to get meals. We moved to Freshens for food over break because the items are made to order rather than all the food in the cafeteria being thrown away.”

Gatto said the university is looking to opening the full menu at Freshens over breaks next year to provide students with variety rather than the same six options available for meal swipes.