During lunchtime, on March 15th, students waited in a long line for the meal to be served in front of the Geumjeong Hall at Pusan National University (PNU). The waiting line stretched beyond the indoor stairs leading to the student cafeteria on the 1st floor and the faculty cafeteria on the 2nd floor of the Geumjeong Hall, and it was connected to outside the building. In addition, in front of the entrance of the building, it was difficult to distinguish between the line for a meal ticket and the distribution of food. Some students only realized they were standing in the wrong line after asking, "What are those lines?” At the same time, Moonchang Hall, Student Union Building, and Saetbeol Hall were the same as Geumjung Hall.

Due to the relaxed COVID-19 policy and inflation phenomenon, students frequently visit the PNU cafeterias. Especially during lunchtime and dinnertime, the cafeterias are crowded with people, which causes great inconvenience to them and the food service workers.

When the semester starts, many students usually visit the student cafeteria. However, the figure for this year is particularly increasing. According to Geumjung Hall, one of the representative student restaurants in PNU, the number of students using the cafeteria in March 2023 (1st-13th) increased by more than 35% compared to last March (1st-13th). Geumjung Hall thinks that as COVID-19 has subsided, the number of students has increased. Kim Nam-Kyung (Nutritionist, Geumjung Hall) said, “There are still many freshmen who do not figure out the geography outside the school so they use the nearby student cafeterias. In addition, as COVID-19 has eased, classes have been converted back to face-to-face classes. That’s why the number of students using the cafeteria has increased.”Most of the students in the line were freshmen.

However, since the lines for dinner are also long, we can consider the effect of inflation as a cause. This is because the price of outside-campus restaurant foods has risen a lot. Even during dinner time, a long waiting line formed beyond the entrance of the Geumjung Hall, and certain menus were sometimes sold out early. On March 8th, the one-dish meals were sold out early, so some students who had already picked up tickets for one-dish meals had no choice but to eat another menu. Nutritionist Kim said, "During lunchtime, both the first and second floors are open, but only the first floor is open during dinnertime, so the waiting line is very long. Usually, the line lasts for one and a half hours.” Kim Byeong-Woo (Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 17) said, "In the past, there were places where we could eat food for 3-4,000 won, but now the price of the restaurants near the school and delivery service has gone up tremendously. Students seem to gather there because that is only a place to eat without burdens.”

Some students have complained about discomfort. Time is running out to get the food and finish the meal before the next lecture starts. Jeong Jae-Won (Dept. of Information and Computer Engineering, 23) said, “I have an experience where I couldn’t eat my lunch because of the lecture time. Although I waited in line for a long time, there were not enough seats.” Kim Min-Seung (Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 23) said, "Even if the waiting line is a bit long, I want it because the price is cheap.”

As the number of students using the school cafeteria grew, the difficulty for the catering workers has also increased. The head of the cooking room at Moonchang Hall said, “I feel the sharp increase in the number of students using the school cafeteria. It seems to be back to before the COVID-19 days.” Nutritionist Kim said, "The number of workers is limited, but if more than the expected number of meals need to be served, we feel so strenuous.” She continued, adding, “As the number of self-serve menus increases, the wait time increases. Therefore, we are trying to shorten the waiting time by raising the number of people in charge at the cafeteria with menus preferred by students.”

Reporter Shin Yu-Jun

Translated by Kim Hyeon-Hee