Beginning Tuesday, the university will expand its popular Grab-n-Go meals program, offering pre-packaged breakfast, lunch and dinner selections in the new “Marketplace Express” section of O’Donovan Dining Hall.

As in previous years, Grab-n-Go will allow students with certain meal plans to use their allotted meals to substitute one pre-packaged selection per designated mealtime for eating in the dining hall, said Eamonn Carr (COL ’06), GUSA secretary of housing and facilities. Students with block meal plans will not be able to participate in the Grab-n-Go program.

Lunch selections will remain the same, consisting mostly of sandwiches and Caesar salads, while the new breakfast meals will consist of bagels, muffins, fruit and yogurt, Carr said. Both will be available every day during the week. The new dinner selections, which will be available between Monday and Thursday, will be the same as lunch meals but will also include a rotating entree each night. Carr said there are also plans to develop hot meals to be sold during the winter months.

Carr, who has been closely involved in the Grab-n-Go program since its inception, said that its success so far led to the plan for its expansion.

“It was definitely worth expanding the variety,” Carr said.

Margie Bryant, associate vice president for auxiliary services, said that the Student Food Committee had worked with university administrators to expand the program.

“I’m hoping it will be successful,” she said. “We’ll know soon enough if [students are] happy with it.”

Carr began exploring the idea of a portable meals program nearly two years ago, when he sat on the Student Association’s Student Services Committee. In September of last year, Grab-n-Go was introduced, offering salads, sandwiches and bagels.

Despite some initial doubts among students and administrators, the program quickly became popular among students seeking a more convenient way to eat. The dining hall soon reported selling an average of 600 pre-packaged lunches each day. By the end of last semester, that average had risen to over 750.

“We never expected the demand to be as high as it has been,” Carr said.

Both Carr and Bryant said that the expanded Grab-n-Go was part of a larger effort by students and administrators to improve the quality of dining services available to students.

Bryant said that improved menus and complete nutritional information are being developed and posted online at https://dining.georgetown.edu and in the Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., Dining Hall itself. Schedules for the availability of Grab-n-Go are also available on the Dining Services Web site.

Carr said that the energy behind the development and expansion of Grab-n-Go has helped other student dining projects, such as the recent renovation of Hoya Court and plans to replace the former Darnall Cafeteria with a restaurant.

He also credited other members of the GUSA’s current administration for helping push the process through.

Bryant said that the improvements to dining services demonstrated that university administrators have been mindful of students’ dining concerns.

“These are all initiatives that the students asked us to do,” she said.

She added that while meal plans are required only for freshmen and sophomores, she hopes upperclassmen will also be encouraged to make use of university dining services.

“We want to have a premier dining program that students say they’re proud of,” she said.