Running the centre
Packed lunch
A packed lunch, in a residence dining hall, is the lunch or dinner the kitchen prepares to take away instead of serving it at the table, for residents who have class, a placement or an exam at that time. It is ordered in advance and replaces that meal's serving.
Also known aspicnic · takeaway meal · bag lunch · meal to go
How it is used in a residence
In colegios mayores (Spanish halls of residence with a formative programme) with full board, the packed lunch is one of the most common requests after a meal cancellation: the medical student with a placement at midday, the team playing away, the Saturday trip. The kitchen needs to know before it starts cooking, which is why each residence sets a cut-off time, usually the night before for packed lunches.
A packed lunch is not just one more serving: it takes up the kitchen in a different way (it is made earlier, packed and marked with a name) and takes that person out of the count for the sitting. That is why it cannot coexist with a dining-hall cancellation for the same meal, and why the allergens of whoever orders it have to be taken into account, since they will not be able to ask at the counter. It also moves the headcount forecast. How Bedel handles it: dining hall.
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that mentioning it in the dining hall the day before is enough. If the request is not written down with the name, the meal and the day, by the time the kitchen is preparing it is a conversation nobody remembers.
Related terms
- Dining-hall cancellationA dining-hall cancellation is the notice that someone will not have lunch or dinner at a particular sitting. It is given before the cut-off time the residence sets, so the kitchen prepares the right number of servings instead of throwing away the ones nobody collects.
- Headcount forecastA headcount forecast is the estimate of how many people will eat at each sitting, built from who lives in the residence, who has said they will not come and how each day of the week usually behaves. It is the number the kitchen uses to decide how much to prepare.
- AllergensAllergens are the substances that cause allergies or intolerances and that EU law requires to be declared: fourteen of them, from gluten to molluscs. A residence dining hall must be able to say which ones each dish contains, even when the food is served unpackaged.