With more than a dozen dining locations on campus, students are finding themselves with barely enough time to eat between a full day of classes. Worse than that,  they’re faced with long lines to get food at almost every dining location as well. TV-2 reporter Kourtney Burns decided to get in line and see for herself how long it actually takes.

[bbrvideo width=”350″ float=”left” caption=”Busy students at Kent State with jam-packed schedules try to find time to eat healthy throughout the day.”]BBR_01a_Burns_NoTimeForFood[/bbrvideo]

Brielle Houghtby, a sophomore Music Education major, is now finding time to eat at the end of her day, and patiently waits in line at Quaker Steak and Lube in the student center about 6pm on a Wednesday night. After Houghtby places her order and grabs a seat, she recalls standing in line for about 25 minutes, though a timer showed that she was there for nearly 40 minutes.

“I guess I didn’t really think that I wouldn’t have time to eat when ” made my schedule,” Houghtby recalls. Many majors at Kent are required to take classes, that often have specific sections available to students that don’t leave much room for flexibility in students’ schedules. Houghtby adds, “…these are the classes I need to get into… if I have time [to eat], I have time.”

When she does have time, she explains that it’s not quite the leisurely experience, “I’ll find myself feeling like I’m literally shoving the food]] down my throat so fast… it takes me like 20 min to eat and … I have time, but it’s unhealthy to eat that fast.” But Brielle isn’t alone in her struggle, several students eating in the HUB at the Kent State Student Center chimed in that they too rarely have breaks in between classes to eat, or have to snack all day or wait until the day is done to eat, sometimes for the first time all day.

This has proven to be a large issue at hand for nutrition and dietary experts such as the likes of Kent State faculty member, Dr. Natalie Caine-Bish. I introduced an article from Rutgers University to her to refute their top three health and wellness tips, which included proper portion size, eating breakfast, and varying meal, which shw wholeheartedly aggredd with. Dr. Caine further understands the constraints of time, suggesting, “the really important thing about eating healthy as a college student is… planning ahead of time.”

Dr. Caine adds that students can eat off-times, when places on campus are less busy; eating 5 small meals a day rather than 3 bigger ones; as well as in snacking in ways that will hold you over, for instance, pre-packaged tuna and crackers, “protein really does help with hunger, [and] having a high protein with whatever else you’re eating would be much better than maybe going and having a donut,” which she mentions will cause your body to crash and feel tired, and… probably more hungry.”