OPINION: Clearing up rumors of caf food shortage

On Jan. 22, with a quality amount of sarcasm, a Belmont student reported in the Belmont Facebook page the Belmont University’s cafeteria was out of food.

However, Kyle Grover, the director of Belmont Dining Services, said the statement was tragically false. Though it is true that 26 people did not show up to work on Friday due to the snow covered roads, other Belmont students and various staff members stepped up to the challenge and were able to keep the cafeteria up and running, Grover said.

On a normal Friday, the cafeteria feeds around 1000 students, according to monthly statistical reports. However, this past Friday, January 22nd, more than 1600 students filed into the cafeteria due to the inclement weather which seemed to shut down the greater part of Nashville.

Although the numbers were unexpected and the cafeteria had to replenish food more often and substitute multiple items that weren’t on Friday’s original menu, the caf did not run out of food, Grover said.

Dining services decided to switch to paper products during this time due to the “critical manning shortage” so the staff would be able to devote more time to keeping the area as clean and stocked as possible, Grover said.

I, personally, was affected by this supposed “situation.”

After reading multiple posts and comments on the Facebook page I was convinced there wasn’t any food left and decided to leave the confines of my comfortable dorm room and go searching for food with my suitemate.

We stumbled upon one of only a few restaurants who had decided to open in spite of the “Nashville Blizzard of 2016”. We entered Cabana with frozen fingers and icy hair and though we were seated quickly, we waited 40 minutes before being addressed. After finally placing our orders, our stomachs were growling at us. Only a few minutes later our waiter returned with a smug look.

“Oh God, what now?” I thought.

The waiter begrudgingly informed us that the restaurant itself had completely run out of food except for fries.

“Wonderful.”

The moral of this story is, as Kyle Grover said in his closing remarks when speaking with me, “You know what they say, if you read it on the internet it must be true.”

This article was written by Sarah Crossan.