Food & Friends: The Dining Hall Culture at Groton

Groton students are constantly passing through the Dining Hall—whether it’s for meals, late-night PB&Js, or even just to socialize, it is a space on campus characterized by its constant influx of visitors. For the Dining Hall staff that serve us everyday, managing 400 students is a significant and demanding task that reveals interesting patterns in our behaviours unnoticed by ourselves.

Catering Manager Greisy has been working in the Dining Hall for the last five years. Whether it’s helping to serve food or cleaning up the space, her presence is felt throughout the kitchen and beyond. When asked about Groton students’ eating habits, she said that for the most part, “people are always excited to get food and are well-rounded in their dietary habits.” However, she said, people do “go crazy” on taco days, filling the Dining Hall with anticipation while waiting in the extended line for food.

Outside of serving food, the Dining Hall is also a critical space for social interaction. Students gather there at the end of a long day of classes and sports practices to unwind with their friends, often spending long hours after they’ve finished eating. Greisy notes that some people tend to stick with the same group of friends over meal times, choosing to sit in familiar circles instead of branching out. In fact, there are defined friend groups, gender-divides, and form barriers that separates students into relatively immiscible social groups in an otherwise close-knit community.

On a better note, Greisy believes that students are generally mindful about their phone usage. She estimates that “about 10 percent of the students are on their phones in the Dining Hall”—mostly when they’re waiting in line for food—while most people choose to engage in conversations around them.

When asked about the role the Dining Hall plays in students’ social life, Greisy smiled knowingly and said: “Food is always love. It’s the best thing in life.” She strongly believes that it is a place where “students can be themselves,” without the outside pressure of academics or sports, and the food brings out the authenticity within us that allows us to connect with one another.

The Dining Hall is not only a place to eat but also a central hub of student life, providing students a medium to socialize through their shared love for food. The staff that works quietly behind the scenes has often come to understand the patterns in our behaviours better than we can. So the next time you’re in the Dining Hall, make sure to respect the spaces after meals, show appreciation, and even attempt to get to know them better, because they certainly understand us more than we realize.