Is it a growing trend or an established tradition?
By Dave Robertson
Liberators. Opportunists. Vagabonds. In the eyes of administrators and others in the college community, these words aptly describe students who are part of a growing trend at McDaniel College: stealing food from Glar.
It’s not so much stealing, some students contend, but rather trying to get their money’s worth of food from the Englar Dining Hall.
“It’s not cheap at all to go eat there,” said a recent graduate of McDaniel College. “Most can’t eat that much in one sitting. You waste $8 on quality food; you can’t hate someone who will take extra.”
Students are notorious for taking plates, cutlery, cups, and of course food of all varieties from our beloved cafeteria. And there is quite an art to jacking as many as 40 apples in one sitting, or multiple wraps, perhaps a loaf of bread, even a nice selection of Glar’s renowned desserts.
Students often take extra food with them to either pass class time or stock the small micro-fridges in dormitory rooms. Again, considering the amount each student pays for tuition, the general consensus is, “Where’s the harm?”
Interviews with many of the food jackers reveal that with any good heist, some perils exist for each brazen student: spillage, tactlessness, and getting caught. Many have developed ways of avoiding these situations by bringing Tupperware bowls conducive to storing soft-serve ice cream and salads, plastic baggies for sandwiches, and using the disposable cups for a spur-of-the-moment stir fry craving that they store in messenger bags and backpacks.
Ms. Celi Bowens of the Englar Dining Hall staff said that the workers in Glar are not responsible if students take food in their bags. But the school is liable if students “take food, let it sit for a few days and it spoils, then consume it, and get some sort of food poisoning.”
One freshman, who asked to remain anonymous, remarked that some students “boldly ask Glar employees for saran wrap” to keep the food mess to a minimum.
A semi-regular beneficiary of these actions warned, “Beware of leaky wraps when using napkins for transport: they adhere like wallpaper so you get a little extra fiber.”
Another student, adamant about the measures taken to extract food from Glar, said, “It’s one thing if you cover [food] or put a book over top of it, but some people are just stupid—just asking to be caught.”
Food is not the only thing that walks out of Glar. Trays make their appearances outside of Glar during the winter months. Concerning utensils, cutlery, plates, etc. when the dishwashers worked, one student remarked, “Please! Snow days? The trays.” If they have not done so already, no student has lived until they try sledding down the slopes of the golf course on a Glar tray.
Whether food heists and supply heists are a brief trend or a growing tradition remains to be seen. But, as one manager of food services stated, “It is an issue but nothing can really be done about it.”