Nightly meal would be greatly appreciated, but we'll have to wait

Late-night study sessions are a staple of Harvard life. Overcommitted students spend their daylight hours scrambling from class to section to extracurricular activities, stumbling back home only to be confronted with piles of problem sets, papers and pain. All of this makes us hungry.

Seven hours after an early dinner, the gnawing hunger begins to cloud our rational faculties. Some of us cope by gorging on greasy Tommy's pizza; others splurge on Slurpees at 7-Eleven. And a few enterprising students will create something that looks like Stouffer's Mac & Cheese.

But for those students who lack either the funds or culinary ability to feed themselves, it is a miserable existence. Thankfully, Harvard Dining Services (HDS) can fill this gastro-intestinal void. HDS is contemplating adding a fourth meal to the board plan, we hope in acknowledgment of the long nocturnal hours we spend working instead of sleeping.

Since students have already paid their dining service fees for the year, the proposal could not take effect until next year. But we encourage the House masters to evaluate the students' suggestions and consider possible changes to the current meal plan.

Because of the nature of a college student's schedule, the first meal eaten is often lunch, the second dinner, and by midnight the student is feeling hunger pains again. Dining halls could prepare healthy snacks so students don't resort to pizza runs to silence the grumbles of their stomachs. Many dining halls are already open into the night for soda and cereal, something we appreciate, and many House committees have worked with dining services to provide late-night snacks.

There are many ways to provide funding for an extra meal. Regardless of how the move would be made financially possible, however, it is a stellar idea that HDS should seriously consider.