Hi There, My son is going into his junior year of college. He will be living in an off campus complex with a full kitchen. Apparently up until this year, the colleges meal plan for these students was optional. This year it is a mandatory meal plan that consists of 75 meals per semester (150) total for the school year for 4,250 which comes out to 28 per meal. This is a small college of approx 600 on campus students that are all athletes. Would anyone happen to have any suggestions on who to voice our concerns to regarding our lack of choices or even waiving the meal plan altogether seeing that they are not only living “off campus”. But have fully furnished kitchens as well. This is frustrating to say the least. Thank you in advance for any suggestions offered!
Maybe it’s filet mignon every night and morning !!
I’d start with the Res Life office.
The Director of Residential Life. Although I suspect you won’t get far.
The followup question should be if any of these meals are convertible to Dining Dollars that can be used at places other than the dining hall
Last year the hockey team all had vague doctors notes stating food issues and got their meal planned waived. The cafes hours were not accommodating to their schedules and the food was below the average standings. Again this is a tiny college
The school likely has a contract with minimums spread across less people than the norm.
I can’t see an institution waiving a mandatory dining plan because the food isn’t up to the student’s standards. And most, if not all, have a dietician on staff to cover food allergies and options to cover missed meals.
But perhaps someone else has experience with a strategy that worked.
Are you sure your kid will have time to shop, cook clean up after himself for three meals a day? Even if breakfast is just toast and coffee… someone is buying the bread and making sure there are filters in the cabinet…
I know parents who were shocked by how expensive it was to feed their kid once they went off the meal plan. The kids shopped for snack foods and fruit…but were ordering takeout or delivery at least once a day. And lunch at a food truck or Subway.
If you think your son’s roommates are putting lentils in the crockpot and washing romaine for a healthy and low cost dinner…that is not most college kids.
But the required 75 meals a semester doesn’t cover three meals a day. It basically covers one meal a day Monday thru Friday, leaving the student to cover the other two meals daily and all three meals on the weekends. Twenty eight dollars a meal.is an extreme amount. They could eat a really good meal pretty much anywhere else for this price and potentially have plenty of leftovers too.
As a more realistic sample, my son just used a meal plan at UMD that allowed 150 meals for $1425 a semester. The OPs school’s required plan seems excessive. Or maybe everything at this school costs more?
Hopefully the OP can find a way to get around the meal plan. It’s unfortunate.thst the school recently made this change and have now added additional costs that these students didn’t have before.
Not my kids, moved off campus to avoid the overpriced meal plans, plus they liked to cook. Maybe it was because they were expected to pay for their own food, but takeout was a very rare treat. They took the maximum of classes and had part time jobs, did very well in classes. My commuter has a $500 mandatory meal plan which is insane (we live 10 minutes from campus), the school just added it to those in on campus apartments. The switched to a new meal provider a year ago and I suspect this was part of the contract. I had 2 home this summer doing internship/clinical, they packed their lunches every single day, I don’t think my husband ever buys lunch.
It might be interesting to find out what the policy is on taking food with you when leaving the dining hall.
I agree that this is probably done to meet the terms of the food service.
At some schools, a requirement like this can be to maintain community and/or to ensure that some kids actually have access to food. Over the years, there have been instances both over breaks and during the year, of students suffering from food insecurity. A kitchen doesn’t help if a kid can’t buy food.
If it’s all athletes, it’s possible that they eat a lot and that the food service is meeting their higher nutritional needs.
While res life may not be able to solve your problem right now, you might feel better if you asked about their rationale and pricing.
I’m pretty sure all of my kids’ colleges had on campus food banks. I doubt a food insecure student can afford a $3000 meal plan every semester. It costs more than eating out off campus 3 times a day.
This seems crazy high to me! An equivalent plan (80 meals/semester w/$500 additional dining dollars)) at my D’s school would have been half that cost. And if it’s a recent change, I would escalate the complaint quickly. IMO, that’s not a reasonable last minute shift.
My daughter was also in the camp of loving to cook for herself when she finally went off campus and had a full kitchen.
But the meal plan would be provided as part of the fA package, so they aren’t paying it . It’s effectively a way to make that student’s eating plan less stigmatizing than going to a food bank.
And yes, I agree that it sounds like a lot per meal, which is why I asked about the policies around taking food from the dining hall.
But there are students (like mine) who wouldn’t be able to afford that, and don’t receive financial aid.
Is the school having financial troubles? That is ridiculous. You could eat at a really nice restaurant for $28.
Yes, I get that. Another way those of us in the middle are squeezed.
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