I’m only going to say this once: Fountain Dining Hall has to do better, please, and thank you. I’m at my wits’ end with there being little to no food available when I go into the dining hall. If I understand correctly, the dining hall does not close until 8:30 p.m ., so until then I, along with every student who walks through Fountain’s doors, expect food.

I don’t understand why, for the past three times I’ve eaten at Fountain, the food has either run out or there’s nothing decent left to eat. Therefore, I have to substitute a bowl of salad for a warm meal. If I wanted a salad, I would’ve gone to the atrium. The reason I chose to go to Fountain is that there are more options; it’s a buffet, meaning we should be able to choose from a variety of things.

Take, for instance, the other night all the dining halls were advertising “a taste of Italy.” I walked in at 7:30 p.m . exactly, one hour before Fountain was supposed to close, and there was no pasta. There wasn’t even a hint there was ever any form of Italy in Fountain. It was, instead, steamed vegetables and beans along with the same pizza they serve at every meal. It looked like they just happened to throw dinner together because, once again, they ran out of food. N.C . State knows we have a large student body, which means a large amount of students have a meal plan. If you’re going to advertise a certain dinner to be offered, it should be there the entire time, right?

Well, apparently not, because it seems to be OK for them to run out of food after a certain amount of time. The lack of food isn’t fair to any student who can’t make it to the dining hall before 7:30 p.m . We’re students, and we have a lot to do, but at the end of the day we expect the same options as other students who may have come in a few hours earlier.

This is clearly false advertising, and it’s getting on my last nerves. I can’t tell you how many complaints I hear about  the dining halls’ food. I typically don’t care because I always find something to eat. But for those times I want a warm meal, I end up eating a salad or a bowl of cereal because the dining halls have those same things all the time.

I do appreciate that we have the option of making a sandwich, eating a hamburger or creating our own salad. But those are supposed to be our sides to choose from, not our main course. I do appreciate the effort Fountain puts in to feed us, but the continuous lack of food is about to drive me crazy.

Fountain, along with the other dining halls, needs to come up with a new system to make sure they don’t run out of food until the last student walks through the doors. Fountain staff could say, “If you do not like our services go eat somewhere else.” And, yes, that would solve something and probably stop my ranting. However, I want options, and the dining hall is the only place where I can get tons of different options with one swipe of my card. So give me and the rest of N.C . State’s student body what we want—food!