SALT LAKE CITY — For many parents of college students, what their children are eating while away from home is a concern. For parents of University of Utah students, they don't have to worry about their kids not eating enough.
The University of Utah just released information about how much food it served students during the most recent academic year.
According to the University of Utah Dining Services, they served 954,273 meals last year. But that isn't a surprise to those who run the services.
“We’ve become extremely skilled at forecasting and understanding student behavior,” Residential Director of Operations Scott Maldonado said. "So, the numbers weren’t that surprising. At the start of the year, students explore a wide range of offerings, then settle into the go-to favorites they grew up loving, like chicken nuggets and hamburgers.”
The top items ordered by students:
- Burgers- 120,660
- Quesadillas- 42,215
- Chicken Nuggets- 32,642
- Burritos- 21,966
- Fried Chicken Sandwiches- 17,246
Utah Dining Services also prepared nearly 1 million orders of French Fries during the year. That required 243,000 pounds of potatoes, or a little more than the weight of an adult blue whale.
Maldonado also estimated that the university served more than 55,000 five-inch pancakes over both semesters. If you were to line up the pancakes, that would stretch 4.38 miles. That could stretch from the George S. Eccles Student Center to the Delta Center.
And birria tacos were also a popular option for students. The Peterson Heritage Center sold 34,376 tacos over the academic year; at six inches long, they would, lined up, stretch slightly more than 5 kilometers.
That's enough to wrap the perimeter of the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium 17 times.
