While walking towards the Caf for their first meal of the school year, returning students were met with an unfamiliar sight. Backpacks of all shapes, sizes and colors lined the walls and floor of the lobby. New students may not have thought twice about this sight, seeing it as just another new thing to become familiar with. Upperclassmen were surprised at this sight and not necessarily welcome to the change.
The sight of backpacks piled up in the Caf lobby used to be commonplace. For years, it was normal for students to drop their bags off before coming into the cafeteria because backpacks were not allowed inside. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the backpack rule was removed to help with traffic flow and social distancing. Students were allowed to bring their backpacks into the Caf so that they could enter in one door and come out a different door, preventing a crowd of people from forming at the main entrance.
The allowance of backpacks in the Caf remained in place for a few years, causing students to grow used to it. However, backpacks began to be a problem last school year. The Caf staff has decided to start enforcing the rule again as bags became a tripping hazard for people walking by, and too many food items were being taken from the Caf.
During the 2022-2023 school year, bags were increasingly used to take food out of the Caf. Things like whole loaves of bread, wrapped sandwiches and large amounts of fruit were being put into backpacks and taken out. Some have questioned why this is considered a problem. After all, students pay for the food, so why can’t they take it with them?
The staff explained that the food students pay for is the food they eat in the Caf and not the food that is taken out. Shelly Grotenhuis, a staff member, stated, “In an effort to keep the price of your meal plan down, we reinstated the no backpack rule.”
For students that want to take a meal out of the Caf, there are green to-go boxes available for a $5.00 deposit that students will get back at the end of the year with the return of their green box. When a student comes into the Caf with a green box, they can exchange it for a clean box, put food in and take it out of the Caf.
Campus dining staff encourages students to purchase a green box if they want to take food outside of the Caf and eat it elsewhere. It is hoped that with backpacks being banned from the Caf again, there will be fewer instances of food being smuggled out.
While campus dining staff recognizes that backpacks and bags are convenient for students, they are requiring students to leave them outside in the Fern Smith Hall lobby, located outside of the entrance to the Caf.
