HUDS Okays Repeat Bag Lunch Orders

Refrigerated bagged lunches sit in the Cabot House dining hall on Feb. 3. Students can pick up a pre-ordered lunch in the morning if they're pressed for time. By Tiana A Abdulmassih

UPDATED: Feb. 6, 2014, at 4:00 p.m.

For the first time, Harvard University Dining Services began allowing students to place weekly orders for bagged meals instead of having them complete the request form each time. Previously, the HUDS “Meal-to-Go” online system accepted only one-time orders.

“We added this option based on student feedback, and hope it helps students who regularly find themselves off-campus during regular meal periods for work or internships or classes across the river,” HUDS Director for Marketing and Communications Crista Martin said in an emailed statement.

The new change came as a result of an initiative started by the Undergraduate Council last semester. The Council's Student Life Committee initiated the project in order to allow students to have the opportunity to have bag meals repeated weekly if needed.

Students said that the new website function would ensure that they would not forget to order a bagged lunch when they could not make it to a dining hall.

“I think the new repeatable order function is quite useful because if people order a bagged lunch, they probably have a schedule that dictates that they have to do it every week,” Ashley D. Dozier ’14 said. “It would be nice for them to not have to remember to put the order in every Tuesday night.”

Several students noted that Harvard’s class scheduling structure can make it difficult to find the time to eat in a dining hall.

“Given my schedule this semester, I’m in class on Thursday from ten to five and I have only one hour for lunch,” Kenard G. Dillon ’17 said.  “So this would be a really convenient thing for me, especially in between classes.”

The new online system only allows for the same type of meal to be repeated every week. If a student decides to change one of the menu items in a repeat meal, he or she must create a completely new order. Students said that this is a minor problem.

“To be honest, Annenberg is already monotonous in its food for every two weeks, so having the same meal for the same day wouldn’t motivate you to eat everything,” Ash S. Asencios ’17. said. “You would probably get sick of it really quickly.”

Still, most students said that they were happy to see the system change. “Regardless though, I appreciate HUDS workers doing this to make our lives easier,” Dillon added. “As much as we would like to complain, at least they are trying to make it easier.”

Notice of this new change was put up in the table announcements throughout the dining halls, but several students said that they have not heard of the recent development.

“I haven’t heard about it until now,” Asencios said. “They should have just sent us an email telling us about this change. If they did, I would have probably known about it.”

Students can order breakfast, lunch and dinner through the HUDS website. Bagged meals can be ordered up until 4 a.m. of the requested delivery day.

—Staff writer Kamara A. Swaby can be reached at kamara.swaby@thecrimson.com.