Busy students have often smuggled a sandwich out of Leo’s or attempted to eat a meal in five minutes to accommodate a hectic schedule, but with this week’s introduction of Grab-n-Go lunches, students may have a more convenient way to eat in a hurry.

The Grab-n-Go lunches, pre-packaged meals that students can take from the dining hall, are a new addition to Dining Services after the idea was introduced in last year’s GUSA presidential election.

These lunches, which include boxed turkey sandwiches on a bun with chips, salads with chicken strips and bagels with cream cheese, as well as fruit, cookies and soda choices with each lunch, are available in Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Students with a board meal plan are eligible to take a boxed lunch as one of their meals during the given time period.

Students taking a Grab-n-Go meal are not allowed to enter the main portion of the dining hall but instead must scan their GOCard and go directly to the open rack of boxed lunches, located to the right of the counter at the entrance.

For Sabrina Nguyen (MSB ’05), the new Grab-n-Go system offers more flexibility on when and where she can eat.

“I have a lot of later classes, so I’m forced to go eat at 4:30,” Nguyen said. “It’s convenient to literally grab something.”

Other students expressed reservations about the boxed meals.

“It’s clearly not equivalent to a full meal,” Patrick O’Neill (SFS ’08) said. O’Neill said that he would consider taking a Grab-n-Go meal for a snack as his meal plan permits, but added that he preferred the broad array of foods offered inside the dining hall.

The idea for Grab-n-Go lunches has been discussed for several years. Eamonn Carr (COL ’06), chairperson of the Georgetown University Student Association’s Student Services Advocacy Committee, discussed the proposal with Margie Bryant, associate vice president of auxiliary services, and the Food and Beverage Committee, which Bryant oversees, in 2003. Not wanting Carr’s efforts to have been in vain, Adam Giblin (SFS ’06) and Eric Lashner (COL ’05) continued to pursue the Grab-n-Go option last spring during their GUSA presidential campaign.

“We wanted the student body to know that Grab-n-Go could happen with the right student advocacy,” Giblin said. Giblin and Lashner finished second in the election.

Bryant said that the Food and Beverage Committee assessed what a Grab-n-Go lunch should consist of and looked into similar arrangements at other universities before instituting the program this year.

“It was created for student convenience,” she said.

She added that due to the computer system used in the dining hall, the Carte Blanche meal plan and the block 75 and block 45 meal plans are currently unable to accommodate the Grab-n-Go option.