As you adjust to eating in a dining hall rather than moseying down to y

our home kitchen, you should discover that the food here is actually pretty decent—that mystery meat from your high school cafeteria will not be resurfacing in the near future. However, while the possibilities of all-you-can-eat buffets and late night fried fare might sound enticing now, there is ample room for improvement within Stanford Dining. This April 5th editorial offered suggestions for further improving both dining hall logistics and the food choices offered on campus.

Stanford Dining already makes great efforts to cater to a set of diverse student tastes and needs. However, the current dining system unintentionally supports unhealthy eating habits. Stanford Dining needs to do more to promote healthier eating among students.

Most nutritionists agree that it is healthier to eat five small meals rather than three large meals every day. However, because dining halls are closed between meals, students feel the need to eat enough to last them until the next meal.

In particular, weekends constitute the greatest threat to healthy eating patterns, because dining halls only provide two meals on weekends, brunch and dinner. Some students will eat even more during weekend brunches than on regular weekday lunches, because brunch often has to last over six hours until the next meal. On top of presenting a health issue, the weekend two-meal policy imposes a particular rhythm on students’ lives. The fact that brunch starts at 10 at the earliest provides incentives to stay up late the night before and sleep in on weekend mornings. Students who prefer to get an early start on weekends find themselves having to work on an empty stomach. We suggest that one or two dining halls on campus open half an hour earlier for brunch and gauge student interest.

Although dining halls cannot be open 24 hours a day, they could have an open kitchen with a limited selection of basic items such as cereal, milk, fruits, and drinks available throughout the day and after dinner.

If Stanford Dining cannot meet all the diverse needs that students have, then they should let other on-campus eateries and cafes fill in the gap. In recent years, Stanford Dining has expanded the number of dining options available on campus through the point system and should be commended for it. But the University should greatly increase the flexibility with which students can use Cardinal Dollars at a variety of dining locations. Moreover, there should be healthy options available in most places where points can be used. For example, Late Nite at Stern and Lakeside are better known for their pizza and chicken wings than for their yogurt and fruit. That is fine, as long as they provide a reasonable selection of healthy options.

Stanford Dining already does a good job offering many high-quality options in its dining halls. Future efforts to improve the quality of students’ dining experience should concentrate on increasing the flexibility of meal plans and dining hall schedules.