Munchin’ at the Junction
Some students have never ventured there and some students practically live there – where the atmosphere is fun and social and the food is – well – there to eat.
It’s the Junction – and you probably either know it really well or you have no clue where it is.
Tucked away behind Richards Hall and just east of Edith Bowen elementar school, the Junction provides about 1,000 meals a day to students living primarily in the dorms, Richards Hall and the Mountain View and Valley View Towers – most of them freshman. And, it provides an place for much of the social fabric of Utah State University students in their first year of college.
“I like the atmosphere. All my friends eat here,” Brad Fry, a freshman majoring in business, said. “It’s a good time; we do a lot of laughing here.”
He said he comes in for two meals and spends a couple hours a day in the buffet- style cafeteria.
The Junction goes something like this: three square meals a day six days a week and two on Sunday. Students come in, slide their USU card and they get an all-you-can-eat meal. The choices range from pizza, nachos and hot dogs to apples, oranges and salad.
“Food’s not the greatest, but definitely you can eat it,” Fry said.
Yet, Nate Crookston, now a junior junior majoring in electrical engineering, said he was fairly satisfied during the two years he ate there.
“I love the Junction,” he said. “I’ve eaten at a few cafeterias and its pretty much impossible to not have things get old after a year, but do a whole lot better than say BYU. That gets old after about a week. The Junction really goes out for variety; I like that.”
He said even when things get old there are always 0″safe meals” like the lasagna, corn dogs and mashed potatoes.
But, he said when he moved out of Richards Hall, “the Junction and I said goodbye.”
Registered dietician and manager of the Junction, Melinda Pebbles has the job of running the place and choosing different menu items. She also gives free diet counseling for students who eat there and live on campus.
Anything can get old, she said, especially when students eat there three times a day.
However, in favor of the students, the Junction held its annual Food Show Wednesday for dinner where food suppliers, national and local, set up shop for students to sample their products.
The food suppliers were at the mercy of students who were given a survey slip where they could rank the foods one through five and comment on what they liked and disliked.
“We just do a small survey to try and find different and newer products that the students really like so we can jazz up our menus,” Pebbles said.
Samples included fried confections, cheese omelettes, ham, pizzas, beverages and entree dishes. USU dietetic students helped run the show.
“I try to find different items that are lower in calories and less in fat,” Pebbles said. But, in the surveys “[students] usually like the fried foods.”
Jennie Schmidt, Laura Brinton, Tara Hall, Jenny Taylor and Sara Smith, all freshman, all agree that the Junction has its ups and downs, but they always know they can get fresh salad and cold cereal at any time. (There are 14 varieties of Kelloggs brand cereal.)
The group said the Junction is a positive place and “all the people that work here are really nice.”
Pebbles, who has been managing the Junction for more than two years and graduated from USU four years ago as an registered dietitan, said the experience has been worthwhile.
“I really enjoy it. its fun to mingle with the college students,” she said. And, because many students come on a regular basis, she has an opportunity to get to know them.
The Junction isn’t only there for students living at the dorms, it is open to anyone and Pebbles urges students to give it a try.
“It’s all you can eat so it’s a little bit more than some of those other locations,” she said, but there might be more of a variety.
Any student can purchase a meal plan, but for those without, dinner costs $7.08, lunch is $4.72 and breakfast is $4.72.
The Junction is also the university’s bakery – supplying food for catering, pre-packaged sandwiches and even those square chewy sweet roles that sell out in the Hub by 9:30 a.m.
“It’s good, it gets the job done. I don’t have to cook or do dishes or anything,” Fry said.
-joelfeathers@cc.usu.edu
Students sit and chat as at they eat dinner at the Junction, campus´s resident living dining hall, Wednesday evening. (Photo by Michael Sharp)