Evan Anderson, The Whetstone

Freshman Craig Sirmons believes the Grocery Basket is a better place to eat than anywhere on campus.

“The food there is very good and it tastes way better than the food from the cafeteria,” he said.

Students like walking to the corner of North Bradford and Mary streets to enjoy different varieties of food and drinks from the corner sandwich shop.

“I think they should let us use our IDs at the Basket to save money,” Sirmons said.

Students have four different options for meal plans on campus dining. The Ultimate 19, which is mandatory for freshman; the Fabulous 14, where students get 14 swipes into the caf per week; the Malmberg Rate, which provides 10 swipes per week; and the Social Lite, which provides 100 meals a semester.

Sophomore Tariah Edmonds said she thinks that eating at either the Grocery Basket or one of the two spots on campus are all good options.

“Every so often I go to the Basket,” Edmonds said. “It’s more convenient because it’s open when the Den is closed. I honestly feel like they provide the same foods at the Basket and the Den.”

The Grocery Basket is open from 7 a.m. till 10 p.m. every day. The Den is not open on weekends, so a majority of students make the trip to the Basket for food.

“The only thing I like about the Basket is the hours of service,” junior Amanda Louty said. “The caf closes early on the weekends and usually doesn’t have as much options as the basket.”

Employees at the Basket said they always have customers calling and ordering food everyday of the week.

“We always have groups of students from Wesley come into our store and order food,” said Grocery Basket worker Virginia Chapman.

Chapman said different groups come in throughout the day, often late in the morning and early in the evening.

“They love to order the chicken tender basket with fries, the cheesesteaks, the onion rings, and the wings,” she said. “We always have Wesley students in our store.”

Some students said they would like to be able to use their school IDs to buy food at the Basket.

“The Basket food is costly, so it would help students save their actual cash instead of using it towards if we were able to use our IDs,” she said.

Wesley staff and faculty also enjoy getting food from the Grocery Basket and thinks students should be able to use their student IDs.

“I think it would help,” Professor Tommye Staley said. “If Wesley somehow was able to connect the Grocery Basket with Wesley, then the students would be able to use their school IDs and it would benefit them.”