Sophomore Mia Donnay had been waiting for an hour to receive her food in District House last month. And she was getting hungry.

She ordered from District Taco, one of four GW-owned dining vendors in the building’s basement that have grown popular among students on GW’s new meal plan. But District Taco only had one staff member behind the counter, and before Donnay received her food, the eatery shut down early. The vendor’s display screens turned off, and an unknown individual shut the metal gate in front of the restaurant, leaving the students who had ordered from the taco shop without food.

“It was just very stressful,” Donnay said. “Students were visibly angry, upset and hungry. And then there was a few helpful workers who tried to mediate and help out because it was a hard situation, right? Like they could only do so much.” 

Donnay said she ended up ordering from neighbor vendor Halal Shack, where she waited 30 minutes before getting her food. 

More than two dozen students said they prefer District House vendors over the all-you-care-to-eat dining halls in Shenkman and Thurston halls for its reliability and predictable quantities. But this year, the influx of students in District appears to cause backups during rushes, leading to longer wait times as workers catch up.

“It seems like more people are dependent on it. Shenkman, often, the food is out,” Donnay said. “And District, the wait times are much longer. It’s been more stressful. A bit less enjoyable this year.”

GW completed the overhaul of its dining system in January, launching a series of swipe-based meal plans for students to use at the trio of all-you-care-to-eat dining halls and Meal Deals at District. But many students said they prefer the food at District, which is often packed wall-to-wall with students waiting for their food, and eat at other dining halls in Shenkman and Thurston less frequently.

“GW Dining provides a variety of quality and diverse food for the broader University community to enjoy,” University spokesperson Julia Metjian said in an email.

Metjian said dinner is the peak time for dining halls, followed by lunch. She said GW Dining has served approximately 55,000 meals per week this semester. She did not return a follow-up question asking how many meals students purchased at each dining vendor.

Students said despite the wait times — which can vary from 20 minutes to an hour — the vendor system in District guarantees a baseline quantity and quality of food, while the all-you-care-to-eat halls tend to run out of food and vary in quality.

“District is a little bit more predictable, like you know exactly what you are going to order when you go and swipe,” sophomore Milly Asherov said. “Whereas with Shenkman, they’re saying you can look online and try to look in advance, but in reality, you never really know what’s there.”

Officials initially announced District would become an all-you-care-to-eat dining facility when they shared their plans to revamp GW dining facilities in 2021. But officials nixed their original plans and turned District, which was previously operated by third-party vendors like Chick-fil-A, into a GW-operated vendor system.

Associate Vice President of Business Services Seth Weinshel said in 2022 that officials abandoned their plans for the dining hall in District to preserve the hall’s status as a dining location and a space for students to gather and study.

“Knowing that as a campus, community space is something that’s really important, and we don’t want to necessarily cannibalize it,” Weinshel said at the time.

Molly Fagelman, a sophomore majoring in international affairs, said Shenkman sometimes runs out of food — an issue that the vendors in District don’t often share.

“Shenkman, at least, there have been a lot of times where I’ve gone and like there hasn’t been any, like they run out. So a little unreliable,” said Fagelman.

Alvaro Ramal, a first-year majoring in journalism and mass communication, said he was almost late to his job in the Flagg Building because of long wait times at True Burger, a vendor in District.

“I had to run with my burger on the takeout box,” Ramal said.