Student leaders plan mess hall for Hill residents over spring break

UCLA student leaders plan to serve free food from Westwood restaurants to students staying in the dorms during spring break, although the event is dependent on whether more sponsors agree to provide food.

Organized by the On-Campus Housing Council and the Undergraduate Students Association Council General Representative 3 office, the mess hall plans to serve pizza from 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria and other food items to students from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Tom Bradley International Hall for up to three days during the break.

The number of days that the mess hall will be open depends on the number of sponsors that organizers can obtain, said Raj Randhawa, internal vice president of the On-Campus Housing Council and a second-year undeclared student. The mess hall is tentatively slated to be open on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, but it will not happen unless On-Campus Housing Council obtains at least one more sponsor.

800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria is currently the only guaranteed sponsor, but enough Westwood businesses have expressed interest that the On-Campus Housing Council hopes they will have more sponsors to open for at least one day, Randhawa said.

Randhawa said the mess hall will be organized like a lounge, with grab-and-go food services as well as a Wii console, TV and couches for students to use.

Fabienne Roth, USAC general representative 3, said being an international student who remained in the dorms over past school breaks motivated her to open a dining service for students in similar situations.

In the long term, Roth plans to look into having a dining hall open during school breaks instead of a mess hall.

“This isn’t something permanent, but we’re hoping it could show there is the need for this kind of service,” Roth said.

Anna Cardoso, an exchange student from Brazil, said the mess hall will come as a welcome change while she remains on campus during spring break.

“During winter break, I stayed for two days and I bought food at the market, but I don’t have a fridge,” Cardoso said. “I would really appreciate (the mess hall) – that would be perfect.”

Roth’s office had planned to bring food trucks to the Hill during the Thanksgiving and spring breaks, but ended up discarding the idea in favor of a mess hall because the food trucks would have to be paid in advance, and organizing food trucks on the Hill involves a lot of red tape, Roth said.

Randhawa said finding sponsors to supply food for a mess hall was a faster, easier and cheaper alternative to food trucks.

Roth said she thinks the mess hall could serve around 100 students for spring break.

UCLA spokeswoman Rebecca Kendall said the university has no data on how many students will remain on campus because students are not required to sign in or out during spring break.

Updated information on whether the mess hall will happen will be be posted on the General Representative 3 office’s Facebook page.