Campus dining has made various changes to meal plans.
Casey Kreger, director of housing and residence life, said Dining Services adapted their meal plans to meet the unique needs of students based on feedback from fall assessments.
“When it came to meal plans, one of the first things is that when we look at meals, the cafeteria is our main hub for dining on campus,” Kreger said. “Within that, the other two avenues, the market and Chick-Fil-A, are there to be able to supplement and provide convenient to-go options that have different menus than upstairs. So with that, we were looking at increasing the value of meal plans for students so the cost per meal was significantly less, and so they also had more opportunities for increased point levels within their meal plans and have the option to choose. We saw increased points, increased meals per week within the full residential plan.”
Kreger said in response to increasing points in meal plans, Dining Services only allows meal exchanges to be used in the cafeteria.
“Meal trades were eliminated from Alvin’s and Chick-Fil-A,” he said. “We looked at students feedback in the past, and students enjoy meal trades, they use meal trades, but they were limited within certain hours of the day to use those, and they were also limited on the total meal trades they were allowed to use per week. So, while we looked at that, we were not able to expand on the hours due to contractual agreements with Chick-Fil-A and our dining service provider. We don’t want students to be limited by hour, and we don’t want students to be limited, because meal trades only cover a certain amount of items at Chick-Fil-A and didn’t cover the healthier items, so you were stuck with a very limited menu within there and at the market.”
Kreger said another change to meal plans this year is the elimination of Stars Cash based on data from previous years’ trends. Some trends included the number of vendors decreasing each year, students showing a decline in the use of Stars Cash, and local restaurants preferring to offer a student discount instead of accepting Stars Cash. Additionally, he said the Stars Cash program was not equitable for students who received scholarships that covered their meal plans, as they were not able to receive Stars Cash.
“When it came to changing the meal plans from last year to this year, all of the elements were factored together to provide increased value for each meal plan. For the full residential meal plans, additional weekly meals and points were added to offset the changes in how meal plans worked with the meal trades, and Stars Cash being removed. Meal plan prices increased from the 19-20 to 20-21 academic year due to the increased number of meals and points provided. The increase in weekly meals and points varied per meal plan type,” Kreger said.
Michael Miller, new general manager of Dining Services, said franchises on campus present challenges for meal plans.
“It’s harder with the franchise to do meal exchanges because there’s franchise fees for every sale. It’s more work, and the accounting part is harder too because the exchange doesn’t have a dollar value, and we have to work with Chick-Fil-A to assign a dollar value,” Miller said.
Miller said he has worked for Chartwells for 35 years and has experience with multiple universities.
“Meal exchanges at every school are different, and they evolve. Before, there were limits on times when they could come to eat, now with points there’s not. The last school I was at didn’t have a big brand like Chick-Fil-A. We increased the points to make up for not having the meal exchange. They can use their points anytime and get anything with their points, where with meal exchange, there was not, and that was a big reason to change it.”
Colton Tompkins, film junior, said he was upset about the decision to not allow meal exchanges at Chick-Fil-A.
“I would say I used more of my meal swipes at Chick-Fil-A than I did at the Caf.” Tompkins said. “It just limits the choices for dining that we have on campus. Even though it’s a place available on campus to eat, we can’t actually use our meal exchanges for them, which makes us kind of only eat at the Caf. We’re paying for our meal plans, and our meal exchanges can’t be used at two of the three on-campus dining locations.”
Kreger said Dining Services also added more meal plan options for commuters and students living in Cokesbury Court Apartments. Another change has provided more accessibility for students to add more points to their accounts.
“In the past when students ran out of points, they had to go to their accounts and buy a Cokesbury plan, which means they had to spend over 150 dollars for another meal plan. From there, we were able to work with Chartwells and students now have the option to add $5, $10, or whatever they want with the dine on campus app and on their website, to be able to load those points up instantly whenever and however they want,” Kreger said.
Kreger also said there will be a survey sent out within the next two weeks requesting student feedback on a possible venue change for Chick-Fil-A.
“We looked at that in the spring, but we didn’t want to rush into anything, and when COVID hit, we definitely just wanted to see what our students really wanted, and didn’t think we had enough student voice in it yet. We decided to hold off until this fall for opportunities and dining events like tastings for student feedback on a potential venue change,” Kreger said. He said if students who take the survey say they would prefer a new venue, plans for changing it will begin being thought of over winter break.
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