As full-scholarship student-athletes prepare for their opponents this fall in afternoon practices and training sessions, a dedicated staff of four full-time employees prepare those athletes an evening meal.
Each evening at The 5 dining hall, student-athletes are provided with a “Training Table” meal tailored to their unique nutritional needs, said Briggitte Mosley, director of Athletic Dining.
“It is a training meal to teach them the proper way to eat for performance,” Mosley said.
The meal is only available to full-scholarship student-athletes and offered at no cost to the them, Mosley said.
Student-athletes do not have time to count calories as they balance class and practice, she said. Instead, Mosley uses a system of color codes to indicate how much of each food athletes should eat. Foods are labeled with red, yellow and green tags.
Foods labeled with a green tag have lower fat content, like vegetables and baked fish. Athletes can eat as much of those foods as they like, Mosley said.
Yellow tags indicate traditional side dishes, such as macaroni and cheese cooked with reduced-fat cheese and additives.
Foods labeled with red tags are typically beef entrees served with one fried food. Examples include fried chicken and beef tenderloin.
The program’s goal is to provide athletes with healthy options they enjoy. Ultimately, the athletes must make the decisions to eat healthy themselves, Mosley said.
What separates Training Table meals from meals offered to the general public are the preparation methods, Mosley said.
“We don’t use butter, we use less salt and lower-fat additives,” Mosley said.
The preparation for the daily meals begins at noon. The staff of three full-time chefs and one part-time employee prepares each meal under Mosley’s guidance.
Working in athletic dining is a long-term affair, as all of the full-time employees have worked for athletic dining for more than 10 years.
Doreatha Thomas has served student-athletes’ nutritional needs for 32 years.
“As long as I can go, I will keep feeding the [athletes] and seeing the smiles on their faces,” Thomas said.
Mosley, who has been with LSU Dining for 28 years, said she has seen “seven or eight coaches in her time.”
Before the NCAA limited student-athletes to one training meal per day in the late 1990s, the program offered student -athletes three meals per day during the week and two per day on weekends, Mosley said.
Since then, the program’s grocery bill has been scaled down from approximately $100,000 per month to less than $20,000 per month, Mosley said.
Mosley estimated that the program serves 120 student-athletes per semester. Nightly attendance fluctuates between 50 and 90 hungry student-athletes.
 
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Contact Paul Braun at
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