Nazareth Dining Hall, Marywood’s main dining location, is now a less popular dining option for students on campus.

According to Austin Fernandez, student government association’s food services representative, there are about 200 customers for lunch and 300 customers for dinner at Nazareth.

These numbers are low when compared to other on-campus locations that offer take-away options. Fernandez said there are about 1,000 customers per day at the Learning Commons, 300 customers per day at First Stop and 600 customers per day at the Atrium.

This means that of the approximately 2,500 meals purchased on campus, only 20 percent are in the Nazareth dining hall.

Fernandez has recognized changes at Nazareth compared to previous semesters.

“I noticed that Nazareth is getting pretty slow in terms of what they’re offering […] , how they only have the two stations open sometimes,” said Fernandez.

Both Joe Garvey, vice president for business affairs and treasurer, and Fernandez said these changes can be attributed to the Learning Commons café becoming more popular.

“Because of that they are getting less traffic in Nazareth and […] they have examined the food that they are putting out and the amount of food,” said Garvey.

According to Garvey, if Chartwells thought more students would return to Nazareth, they would be putting out more food.

Garvey said Chartwells did not purposefully limit the amount of food. The changes were made to meet the needs of students eating at Nazareth.

To increase the number of students eating at Nazareth, the hours of other on-campus dining locations would have to become more limited to encourage students to eat at the main dining hall, according to Garvey.

“But then we would have a group of students that would be unhappy with the fact that we’ve curtailed hours at prime locations,” said Garvey.

Garvey said the food being offered is still the same as previous semesters.

“I don’t think the quality of the food is suffering,” said Garvey. “From all indications, 99 percent of the students like what is served. It may be that there are not as many choices.”

Haleigh Zurek, sophomore nutrition major, who eats in Nazareth most days for lunch and dinner, said she has noticed changes to the food options.

“I wouldn’t say that Chartwells is bad, although it could use some improvement,” said Zurek. “I would like some more variety every once and a while but it could be worse. I wish there were more options available to students like grilled chicken and fruit.”

This article is the first in a series of articles about dining options on campus.

Contact the writer: [email protected] 

Twitter: @RLookerTWW