If you’re confused that you can’t find any Danforth University Center taco salads on weekends, you’re not alone. But that’s the case this year: the DUC and Etta’s are henceforth closed on Saturday and Sunday. Better tell mom or dad to pack you a lunch.

Dining Services’ decision to cut the main dining options on main campus is rather problematic. While Cafe Bergson and Whispers Cafe remain open, most human beings—yes, even college students—require greater sustenance than packaged salad, pastries and turtle lattes.

Currently, the only “real” dining options on main campus for weekend stragglers are Cafe Bergson, Subway and Ibby’s Bistro. Earlier in the year, Subway ran out of bread one Sunday, most likely due to the herds of the hungry and disappointed frantically searching for something—anything—to replace their dreams of DUC gyros.

It is not an uncommon thing for people to come to main campus on the weekends. Many student organizations meet on main campus. Others study in the library. Others work in studio. Others play intramural Frisbee. Footlongs are great, sometimes—500-foot-long lines of starving teenagers are always frustrating.

Ibby’s is an alternative, but it is only open until 5 p.m. on Saturdays and isn’t open at all on Sundays—not to mention the fact that many students would probably prefer not to spend 10-20 meal points for an allegedly gourmet burger or chunk of fish.

Putting aside the fact that students have many reasons to spend their weekends on main campus, the absence of food options affects those who choose to remain on the South 40 or in the Village, as both Bear’s Den and the Village Grill only offer brunch before late afternoon, making Cherry Tree Cafe’s sandwiches and comfort meal and, again, packaged food from Paws & Go or the Millbrook Market the only lunch options in campus residential areas.

The importance of maintaining a balanced diet is emphasized heavily at Wash. U., with health-centric rhetoric sprinkled in pamphlets across dining hall tables, yet the limited options available to students on weekends remove the convenience of healthy eating and indirectly encourage consumption of breakfast pastries, croissants and all-you-can-eat bacon. It’s easy to encourage students to balance their palates with color-coded brunch plates and “healthy fact” table signs, but the effectiveness of these methods must be questioned when the opportunities to eat affordably and conveniently on weekends are so few and far between.

While it may be true that places like Whispers and Bergson see more traffic on weekends than the DUC, cutting back on hours in places that don’t offer as many dining options could conceivably drive traffic toward places that offer more balanced options. The practicality of brunch on the South 40 and the Village, too, ought to be assessed—not just in terms of profit but in terms of providing convenient, affordable and healthy food options for students at all hours of the day. The desire of Dining Services to reduce costs at on-campus eateries is, of course, understandable, but the importance of student health and diet shouldn’t be pushed to the side in favor of efficiency.