SOUTH KINGSTOWN – University of Rhode Island student Audrianna Casey has recently expressed complaints regarding the operation times of the on-campus dining halls.

            The University of Rhode Island, home to over 16,000 students, has but only two fully functioning dining halls to choose from. Mainfare, located in the Hope commons, where Rhody Market also resides, and Butterfield dining hall which is attached to Butterfield residential hall.

            The issue that Casey, a freshman at the university has brought up is the hours the dining halls operate on. Mainfare, the schools largest hall is only opened for lunch Monday through Friday, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and dinner from 4:30 p.m. to around 8:00-8:30 p.m. On weekends, the dining hall opens for brunch at 10:00 a.m., closing at 3 p.m., and then re-opening for lunch from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays, and 8:00 p.m. on Sundays.

            Rhody Market, located in Hope commons next to Mainfare, is a place where students with the grab n’ go meal plan option can get food, like the name suggests, on the go. In the mornings starting at 7:00 a.m. breakfast sandwiches and bagels are available, and come the afternoon until 11:00 p.m., salads, pizzas, and smoothies are also an option. Butterfield, the final dining hall, is opened Monday through Friday for breakfast from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and then 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. for lunch, and then 4:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. for dinner.

          On Friday nights and weekends, Butterfield dining hall is closed, leaving a little over 6,000 students to only be able to go to Mainfare, causing it to get extremely packed.

       “There’s a bunch of kids get out of class late or athletes that get out of practice late and their only option for dinner is gross pizza that no one wants to eat,” said Casey. 

      Soon After I talked about the issue with Casey, I reached out to Steve Mello, head of dining services here at the university.

      “When we opened Hope Commons our goal was to extend the hours for dinner past 7:30 PM while trying to maintain labor costs as much as possible. Labor costs impact the cost of meal plans almost as much as food costs,” said Mello. “On the average we see participation drop on weekends as many local students leave the campus. We have the capacity between Mainfare, Rhody Market, and Ram’s Den to service this weekend customer, therefore containing food and labor costs at Butterfield,” he said.

       After discussing the topic with Mello, it is clear why the dining halls operate the way they do, but it is still a frustrating situation when you want to be able to grab dinner but are constricted by the hours available for you.

       All while grab n’ go meals do exist, and they are offered for a much longer time period, it is still frustrating because over time those same two options of pizza and salad to get bore some.

      The dining halls at URI, from a student stand-point are nothing close to perfect, but from a business standpoint, they are running as swiftly and economically as they can.