This must be what is behind the popularity of eating clubs at some schools.
A student on a full meal plan who is still hungry from time to time does not have one of the world’s more serious problems. ‘Hunger’ means persistent day to day nutritional deficit, not I wish I had a snack right now.
My dorm certainly didn’t have a kitchen. We were allowed mini fridge and microwave and that was it. I couldn’t afford either but luckily my roommates could.
My D lived on campus two summers in a dorm that did have cooking facilities (intended for the summer students to use). My observations are:
A) It was expensive to set her up - buying pots, pans, baking sheets, cooking utensils, measuring cups, tupperware, aluminum foil, etc. This is not a “solution” for a poor kid to say “go cook for yourself.”
B ) It was depressing to just go cook by herself and eat by herself (or with whatever student happened to wander by).
C) This is one of the downsides of a small LAC that didn’t have an open cafeteria for summer students. If I had had my druthers, I would have much rather paid for a meal plan where she could socialize and take meals with others.
D) Absent a specific medical / diet restriction, I think there is something just a little high-maintenance and princess-y about being the kind of person who just can’t go find something to eat in a regular cafeteria alongside everyone else.
Some schools allow for different types of meal plans. When money’s short, students take the cheapest meal plan, which may cover 10 meals a week. And those are the meals the student has. For the rest, the student has to figure it out, and since s/he took the reduced meal plan because there was no money, the other meals are a problem. Getting fruit out of the cafeteria is usually easy enough, but an 18 year old can’t survive on dinner = a banana.
I don’t recommend a diet comprised entirely of pasta, unless one is looking forward to scurvy. (Not totally kidding…)
If so many mealplan students at a school are missing out on dinner bcs of sports and other obligations, then why don’t they band together and ask the school to make some reasonably simple accommodations for later food, like a takeout box or scaled-down buffet.
Many of the airport hotels I’ve used offer takeout to guests with early flights who have to depart before breakfast hours. This is not rocket science.
@Pizzagirl, I went to school many years ago, so maybe the way meal plans work now is different from the way they worked then. We had a few options to choose from and each cost a different amount. We paid whatever the rate was and received what amounted to a debit card. That money had to last all semester and the food on campus wasn’t cheap.I made a budget for how much I could pay per meal and stuck to it. I chose the least expensive (healthy) items on the menu, but still had to supplement with ramen. I ate ramen every day, and I was still hungry.
I think the real “hungry” students are those who live off campus (either because it’s cheaper or required by university) and can’t afford meal plans. Even working part-time, it can be hard to make ends meet, if you have to buy books, health insurance, etc. Or those who have chosen a smaller meal plan (10 meals a week) due to costs. It also annoys me that my son’s cafeteria is closed on weekends after Sat lunch. He has to spend his own money to eat on the weekends.
@sorghum, Thank you for the definition. I understand hunger better than you think. 
^excellent idea GMT. My college had such a plan - students who couldn’t be at lunch/dinner for whatever reason had a “right” to a meal because they’d paid for it (… their parents), and thus they could pick up a packed meal with plenty of food, including two pieces of fruit and a yoghurt, or they could go at lunch time and pack their own meal for lunch or dinner, with no restrictions as to how many sandwiches they made for themselves. I think the restrictions meant no mayo or milk jugs (might spoil). Students didn’t abuse it as far as I know, since it had to fit in the brown paper bag and these students/we didn’t have much time to start with it’s not like they packed 5 sandwiches and 10 bags of chips, but it doesnt cost anything to the school and ensures all students can eat food that’s paid for.
Creating a “meal-to-go” bargaining group may well get enough members to go to the school senate and have the policy voted on. 
Its worse when you cant ask parents for help because you know they dont have money either, and gets even more awful when you cant find an on campus job
I’m not sure about S’s school (which has a lot more cafeterias and extended dining hours), but I think at D’s school, you can get a box lunch to go if your schedule means that you have classes over lunchtime. All you have to do is request it.
“Some schools allow for different types of meal plans. When money’s short, students take the cheapest meal plan, which may cover 10 meals a week. And those are the meals the student has.”
Presumably the “missing” meal is breakfast. So then the kid buys cereal and milk or yogurt. I’m not saying it’s optimal, but what should be done? I remember reading that even Harvard has stopped offering hot breakfasts. If someone isn’t going to order a “bigger” meal plan, then what responsibility does the college have to feed them?
Well, there are 14 meals outside of breakfast… that leaves 4 dinners that aren’t covered in the 10 meal plan.
The college doesn’t have a responsibility to feed the students outside the 10 meals purchased, but making the cost of the meal plan a bit more accessible might be a good idea, so that there’s not such a huge discrepancy between eating at school and upper-class students eating in rented apartments.
“I went to school many years ago, so maybe the way meal plans work now is different from the way they worked then. We had a few options to choose from and each cost a different amount. We paid whatever the rate was and received what amounted to a debit card. That money had to last all semester and the food on campus wasn’t cheap.I made a budget for how much I could pay per meal and stuck to it.”
I am only familiar with meal plans where you get (essentially) unlimited at each meal - that you buy “a lunch” or “a dinner” and can choose accordingly / fill up on seconds if you so desire, versus “charged separately for your chicken, vegetables, pasta, and dessert” as the poster above describes.
I wonder what % of campuses do it these different ways?
I did note that both my kids’ schools do say you’re only allowed to take out a beverage and one piece of fruit. Didn’t realize that.
Our school charges 5 dollar for a togo
Only one of mine had a meal plan for one year. You could get a go box, but the whole thing was ridiculously expensive, basically about 10-bucks a swipe and they have always lived in apts with full kitchens and are surrounded by stores and fast food outlets that take dining dollars, too.
Its worse when you cant ask parents for help because you know they dont have money either, and gets even more awful when you cant find an on campus job
*
I know how difficult it is when your parents can’t help you more with your expenses, several friends wanted D to take trips with them & they thought she could just get extra money from her parents.
But I do not know anyone who wasn’t international who could not find work on campus. I am not familiar with the logistics, are you allowed to work at all while attending school?
H had lost both parents by the time he was college age. He was able to live in the family home, maintained by an older sister, but he paid 100% of his own way at school. After that, even working FT (he didn’t sleep much), there wasn’t much money left over, and I KNOW he missed meals. He didn’t find excuses, but it was a rough time, no matter how well he planned. It would have been great if the college had some way to allow students like him to access leftover food from meal plans or directed him to resources that could have helped. And he was lucky-at least he lived at home. Not all students can.
The thinking that students who go hungry are either too stupid or their parents are too stupid to properly plan is way off base, IMO. So is the idea that every college just feeds everyone plenty and that outside food isn’t necessary, as is the thinking that all students will have the money to supplement. No, not if there is NO money to do so. How hard is that to grasp? H has told me that sometimes helping his friends out and getting some cash in return was the only way he ate some nights. No money really means no money.
Perhaps, the difficulty people are having with the concept is the idea that if you have no money to do something you don’t do it. There is no entitlement to going to college. Do people want more food aid or what? Maybe, a larger student loan to cover snacks? There is extra money in most COA aid at the schools with which I am familiar, that’s for sure.
If there is no money to do so, then they don’t attend college. It’s not an entitlement.I had also lost my father while I was in high school and my mother was mentally ill, so no money here either.
I did not expect to attend college.