<p>This is one of those “why didn’t* I *think of that?” stories. What a generous thing to do!</p>
<p>[Cooper</a> City High graduate starts homeless food program - Miramar - MiamiHerald.com](<a href=“http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/miramar/story/1071035.html]Cooper”>http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/miramar/story/1071035.html)</p>
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<p>Wow! What a wonderful thing to do! I bet this sweeps campuses across the country. I know my S did not use all his meals, I’m sure many students do not. Thanks for posting this.</p>
<p>Great idea… and then you wonder how long until the universities make it an improper use of meal plans (as in non-transferrable) or something like that. I am sure their business model actually counts on people not using all their meal credits. Best to keep an idea like this underground so as not to draw too much attention to it.</p>
<p>Great idea but wouldn’t work at DD’s school. Meals are per day and per week. A 15 meal plan means you can have 15 meals per week but no more than 3 meals per day and 1 meal per meal (only 1 breakfast at breakfast time).
I’m sure it is the way most schools make money on dining plans. I know that the school made tons of money on my vegetarian who didn’t eat most meals and even then, didn’t eat a lot. Guess it made up for the hefty guys going for seconds every meal.
At her school they collect unopened food in the dorms at the end of the year and give it to the local food bank.</p>
<p>S’s college does this toward the end of a semester. Students can “donate a swipe” off their meal card. They generally have swipes left, so it is a good way not to waste them. The monetary equivalent of that swipe is then given to the local food pantry.</p>
<p>This is a great idea. Only problem is that the cost of the meal plans is based on formulas that figure in an average number of unused meals. If every student uses every meal every semester, the cost of the plan to all students will go up. </p>
<p>If this were food going into a dumpster, it would be a great idea. But many of these meals are actually not paid for. On the surface they are paid for, but the cost of the plan has been reduced by the historic numbers of meals not used.</p>
<p>Soon, all students will pay more for there to be enough meals to feed the poor.</p>
<p>My daughter as some of her friends have been doing this at her school in the city. Her plan is meals per semester and they can get takeout boxes if not dining in.</p>
<p>While it is most likely true that the colleges figure in that meals may go uneaten and that comes up with the cost, isn’t it a bit unethical to say that students can not have these meals just because they were away or went out to dinner or what have you. 80 meals not eaten in a semester is about 5 per week in a 16 week semester - quite a bit even if just no breakfast weekdays. I never liked these “cooperative” arrangements (one overpays and one underpays) myself. I think a lot of places would not let you take out box meals by the bushel - left over meals or not.</p>
<p>As to food in the dining hall that would go to waste. In cities there are usually places like City Harvest in NY that will pick up excess food. My old law firm gave food every week day from leftover catering foods, uneaten lunches etc.</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to City Harvest](<a href=“http://www.cityharvest.org/]Welcome”>http://www.cityharvest.org/)</p>
<p>I am not saying the students are not entitled to the meals not used. I am simply saying that, if at the end of the semester ALL students use up ALL meals, the cost the next year to every student will go up. And in reality, the student is the only one “entitled” to the meal.</p>
<p>It is a great thought. But if it continues, the cost to students for that meal plan will continue to go up, because now the student is paying based on 100% utilization. The company the provides the service and the college or university will not be helping to feed the poor. Rather, the students or whoever is footing the bill will ultimately pay. The cost of meal plans will go up. More financial aid will be needed. </p>
<p>There is no such thing as a free lunch.</p>
<p>A student can do anything they want with the meal. My D can have friends as guest use any of her meals when visiting her at school. They are payed for. So it should not be up to the school to decide how a student uses their payed for meal.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school allows the students to donate unused meal swipes to local charities.</p>
<p>Wow-I graduated from Cooper City</p>
<p>Vassar has been doing this at least since I’ve been there. We used to be able to donate our meals to an on-campus charitable organization, which would then use the points to purchase nonperishable goods directly from Aramark, but then Aramark decided to show its true colors as greedy, profit-hungry jerks who care nothing about the hungry in the United States and stopped letting us do that. They tried to start charging the group $200 for a pan of lasagna… so the group decided to circumvent it by having people take out as much food as possible in to-go containers and delivering it directly to the shelters. This isn’t as effective as it was before, since we can only donate mostly perishables now, but if that’s how Aramark wants it, that’s how they’ll have it. </p>
<p>I think it’s disgusting that we aren’t allowed to use the meals that we pay for in whatever manner we choose. Our unused meals now go to Aramark, no matter what. It’s absolutely shameful that there are people going home hungry while Aramark eats up the extra profits.</p>
<p>American University has a similar program, called “Swipe Away Hunger”.</p>
<p>I’ll bet colleges build the cost of those uneaten meals into the cost structure of the food plans. If the meals are suddenly eaten it will no doubt impact cost.</p>
<p>dc89,
Vassar did this back in the 70’s too. I recall both the opportunity to donate a meal to a charity and also a night where we were given the opportunity to eat a rice meal that mirrored what many poor in the far east ate as a typical meal.</p>
<p>What a great idea. My son is a rising senior at his college and brought home cases of candy bars the first two years and then a case of pop tarts this Spring to “spend” his un-used meals. The thing is that son doesn’t like chocolate and the rest of us aren’t big candy eaters so we had tons of candy bars just lying around. He thought he was improving with the pop tarts but didn’t realize that his brother had stopped eating them and the rest of us never have. I’m taking most of them to the local food bank, but what a waste of money. I would much rather have just given something of value to hungry people.</p>