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Haley Murray
Daily Egyptian

The Christ in Youth Camp has reached its peak this week with 2,400 students, and Student Center restaurants are doing their best to feed the biggest group.

The camp has used campus facilities for nearly 10 years. Campers sleep in the dormitories, use classrooms for their activities and eat at the Student Center.

The three-week program brings in a new set of campers every week. Last week the number was 1,700. Next week, 1,000 campers are expected, conference coordinator Lana Campbell said.

The campers and their counselors receive debit cards at the start of the camp week that they use to purchase breakfast, lunch and dinner from any of the restaurants in the Student Center, Campbell said.

"We're having them come in shifts," she said. "It's amazing they all get fed."

Although campers don't eat all three meals every day at the Student Center, Campbell said the number is still enough to overwhelm the restaurants, which have set up express booths throughout the Student Center to lighten the load.

McDonald's opened a McDonald's Express across from the television lounge, Noble Roman's set up a table inside the lounge and Subway set up an express in the Big Muddy Room in the basement. In addition, the Dippn' Dots stand was brought over from the Arena for the duration of the campers' stay.

"We're trying to spread them out," said Susan Coriasco, assistant director of the Student Center.

Noble Roman's supervisor Sam Pullen said he usually has one or two people running the express table, where campers can get breadsticks, pizza and soda, from 4 to 6 p.m.

Depending on the length of the line, he may keep the table open longer.

"It just speeds up the process, serves the kids better," he said. "Most are pretty grateful they don't have to wait in a long line." Subway employee Sara Wright said Subway pre-makes cold sandwiches and hauls them down to the Big Muddy Room to await the campers' lunch break from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"It takes a lot of pressure off of the people up here," she said. "If they want a cold sandwich, they can just go downstairs get them."

McDonald's express booth matches the eating hours assigned to the campers: breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m., lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and dinner from 5 to 7 p.m.

Campers can get a hot breakfast from the express booth, but salads and a variety of desserts are the only options for lunch and dinner due to transferability and various codes, McDonald's general manager Rick Rutherford said.

The express booths, open to campers and non-campers alike, will come down next week, but McDonalds will take its booth down Thursday.

Reporter Haley Murray can be reached at haley_murray@dailyegyptian.com