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BY NICOLE KAST

In print | Published November 4, 2004

The meal credit schedules at Sharples and Essie Mae’s are often a subject of discussion and confusion among hungry diners.

Currently, Essie Mae’s accepts meal credit on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. for breakfast, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for lunch, and 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. for dinner, as well as between 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. for dinner on weekends. Sharples accepts meal credit from 7:30 a.m. to 7:15 p.m. on the weekdays and from 7:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. during weekends.

According to Manager Scott Tutton, regulating the flow of traffic at Essie Mae’s was one of the considerations that went into devising the meal credit schedule because most of the faculty and staff eat at around the same time as students. The administration wanted to give faculty and staff a specific period of time in which to eat without having to wait in long lines.

Tutton also said the Quaker-inspired tradition of students eating meals together was part of the reason for the schedule. “That’s why there’s only one dining hall,” Tutton said. “The meal equivalency at Essie Mae’s was never intended to replace Sharples.”

Some students feel that Essie Mae’s should accept meal credit all day. “I think it’s bad and annoying because if you want just a sandwich from Tarble, you have to wait until 1 p.m.,” Johanna Braff ’05 said. Braff added that she wished both Tarble and Sharples were open longer.

The restricted schedule at Essie Mae’s is particularly tight for students who finish their morning classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:35 p.m. and have another class at 1:15 p.m. Haley Loram ‘08 said she was frustrated at having to choose between sprinting to Sharples or waiting until 1 p.m. to get something at Essie Mae’s.

“It would be convenient if Essie Mae’s would let you use your meal card 15 minutes earlier,” Loram said.

A remedy to this problem is the option of bag lunches, which are available at Tarble every weekday during lunch hours, Director of Dining Services Linda McDougall said in an e-mail. “The main motivation [for the bag lunches] was class schedule, but we were also motivated because of the long lines in Sharples at certain times during lunch and lack of seating,” McDougall said.

Christine Duranza ’08 agreed. “I think [bag lunches] are really convenient because I can just pick one up and go and take it to class,” she said. Duranza added that she was pleased with the variety of bag lunches available.

Staff at both Sharples and Essie Mae’s agree that the current schedule is for the best. Elaine Hayman, a Sharples staff member, said having two food venues open at different times gives students the much-needed option of picking up food at all times of the day. “Just in case we’re closed, they can go up [to Tarble],” she said.

Valerie Morse, an Essie Mae’s staff member, agreed by saying that the different schedules are necessary for maintaining order at the snack bar. “If everybody came at the same time, there would not be enough room to hold them,” she said.

Over the past few years the Dining Services schedules have changed many times, Tutton said, and the current schedule is being kept because it appears to best suit the needs of the school.

Sharples instituted its “open door” policy of accepting meal credit all day in March 2000. McDougall spearheaded this policy. The hours for Essie Mae’s snack bar were fixed when staff found that students generally did not come to buy food past 10:30 p.m.

There is no plan to change the hours or meal equivalency times of either Essie Mae’s or Sharples in the near future.

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