Dining quality important: Locally grown options should take back burner to taste

Nutritious quality food must be Carolina Dining Services' first priority.

While increasing the use of locally grown food is important a greater effort should be focused on food quality.

Mystery meat soggy pizza and pasta are too often the only things on the menu" and patrons' initial impression of the nice facilities and the ""Carolina Diner"" wear off quickly once they sample the food.

Dining services should place a priority on nutritious food that also tastes good.

Furthermore" Carolina Dining Services should extend the hours of operation for its facilities. Besides Alpine Bagel there are no options for late-night dining on campus. It's hard to believe that on a campus with thousands of students the late-night options would be so limited.

In addition locking students into a meal plan forces students to deal with the current quality of the food served in the dining halls with no recourse.

Allowing students to cancel their meal plans without steep financial penalties would force dining services to make sure their patrons were satisfied with their dining experience.

Focusing on local foods is important because it helps the local economy and environment. Any transition to a more locally-based dining services program should be a long-term goal.

But dining services has more pressing issues to address.