Dining Hall helps students to avoid the freshman 15

Pradyot Sharma

Taylor Walding

The Trojan Dining Hall is helping students avoid the freshman 15 by using innovative weight loss strategies that incorporate hiding cutlery and closing early on weekends.

It is not unusual for students to have to walk the entire dining hall three times before they find a fork.

“I literally checked every silverware station before eventually asking an employee who told me,” said Nicole Whittaker, a freshman pre-health major from Gulf Shores. “I was redirected and then sent to beg at the dish room window for a clean knife.”

Whittaker said that her two weeks eating at Saga have helped her lose 5 pounds.

Closing early on weekends is another strategy the dining hall is using.

“Students expect that we would be open at reasonable times when people eat, which is about 6 o’clock, a spokesperson for the dining hall said.

“But we close right then, so they just have to walk across campus, only to find most of the Trojan Center restaurants closed as well, which in turn leads them back across campus to Moe’s. It’s really quite the walking loop, giving students plenty of exercise for the day.”

The dining hall is expected to overtake the Trojan Center fitness center as the primary place of exercise for students.