-ACSD- Meal Plans

[Brent Kooi]

Hello All –

 

Belhaven College currently offers only one meal plan for all resident students – 20 meals per week.  We are looking into offering several options NEXT year, and I have a few questions for you all:

 

• Our service provider would like to offer 10 & 15 meal plan options which can only be used Monday through Friday.  I’ve never heard of such a thing and am wondering if anyone else has this.  If so, does it work?  Do your students come from a wide geographical area, or do many of them live nearby and go home on the weekends?

 

• What meal plan options do you have at your school (meals per week)?

 

• Which options are the most popular?

 

• Is there anyone out there whose school was like ours, with one meal plan, who has changed to several options in the last several years?  Has it been a good change for the school and the students?

 

Thank you!

 

__________________________________________________________

 

Brent Kooi, Dean of Student Life

Ph:  601-968-5969

Belhaven College;  Jackson, MS.

 

"Where the Power of Knowledge meets the Power of Faith"

 

[Josh Arnold]

We actually did just the opposite- went from having multiple meal plans to a single meal plan (Pioneer Catering Services is our provider). What we found was that a smaller meal plan had the allure of being less expensive for our students. However, students soon discovered that they could procur neither the quantity or quality of food with the amount "saved" and would inevitably switch back to the full meal plan in a few months. At the risk of becoming too overly "Big Brother," there is also concerns around the quality of diet, especially for underclassmen on these plans living in the traditional residence halls. One possible suggestion for implementing multiple meal plans would be to offer them to commuting students, working students who are unable to attend traditional dining hours, or to limit them to students living in non-traditional residence facilities (such as campus houses or apartments equipped with kitchens).

Joshua Arnold
Men's Quad RD/Director of Housing
Tabor College
400 S. Jefferson Street
Hillsboro, KS 67063
(620) 877-7162
>>> "Brent Kooi" <bk...@belhaven.edu> 06/12/08 11:36 AM >>>
Hello All -

Belhaven College currently offers only one meal plan for all resident

students - 20 meals per week. We are looking into offering several

options NEXT year, and I have a few questions for you all:

* Our service provider would like to offer 10 & 15 meal plan

options which can only be used Monday through Friday. I've never heard
of such a thing and am wondering if anyone else has this. If so, does
it work? Do your students come from a wide geographical area, or do
many of them live nearby and go home on the weekends?

* What meal plan options do you have at your school (meals per
week)?

* Which options are the most popular?

* Is there anyone out there whose school was like ours, with one

meal plan, who has changed to several options in the last several years?
Has it been a good change for the school and the students?

Thank you!

__________________________________________________________

Brent Kooi, Dean of Student Life

Ph: 601-968-5969

Belhaven College; Jackson, MS.

"Where the Power of Knowledge meets the Power of Faith"

_______________________________________________
ACSD Discussion Mailing List
dis...@acsdhome.org
http://lists.acsdhome.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

[Matheny, Jon D]

At HIU we have three meal plan options: 10, 15 and 19.  19 is all the meals we serve: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, M-F and Brunch and Dinner on Sat. and Sun.  So, we have a total of four meals on the weekends.  Our students come from all over the west coast, so the campus is at least 60% full on the weekends.

 

Because we want to help the parents of Freshman, in particular, feel that they're kids are going to be well fed while here, we require that all Freshman have either 19 or 15 meals/week.  Sophomores and upper-classmen have the additional option of 10 meals/week.

 

The 15 meal plan is, by far, the most popular.  Many students do not eat breakfast every morning, which allows them roll over some meals into the weekend.  They can use the meals however they choose throughout the week,  No meals roll over to following weeks.  So, if you don't use all your meals, you loose them after the Saturday night dinner.  The next week's worth of meals begins on Sunday morning.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Jon Matheny
Director of Housing
Residence Life Coordinator for Men
Hope International University
(714) 879-3901 Ext. 6281
jmat...@hiu.edu

[Ross, Corey]

We are transitioning this summer from Sodexho (after 31 years) to Bon Appétit.  For the first year, we have all decided to maintain the same meal plans we’ve used for the past 6 years or so.  We have 2 main meal plans—a “full” one at 19 meals and a “partial” one with 13 (all cost the same, just differences in “flex money”).  With about 75% hungry guys (that actually eat breakfast) on our campus, our full meal plan was the most popular with about 2/3 of our student body on that plan.  In the past two years, we’re right at 50/50 between the two.  (That might change once students make a judgment call on the quality of Bon Appétit and desire to get up for breakfast.)

 

Note that we do not currently separate the room and board fees—it’s all the same amount, and all traditional residential students must pay the full amount, so the plans are simply various combinations of meals and flex money that are all included in the room/board fees.  I have attached our brochure for the students that outlines the meal plans I mention above, as well as the commuter-only options we offer our non-residential students.

 

The extra meal plan option has been great for our campus, mainly in the student satisfaction arena of having a choice and recognizing the fact that many do not eat breakfast.  Our students have shown themselves to be extremely financially savvy, and they really struggled with “losing” those meals that they didn’t eat.  They also appreciate the extra flex money to use at the coffee shop or snack bar throughout the semester.  We wouldn’t go to block plans like I used to have in college (flat number of meals per semester—enabling us to have guests join us for a meal) for a couple reasons: it doesn’t help the dining hall plan at all, and it creates a real problem for students who don’t plan well and use up the meals well before the end of the semester and then have to ask the parents for more money mid-way through.

 

About half of our 100-person honors apartment population chooses a greatly reduced meal plan with just 7 meals a week and no flex money (these students pay $250 less for room and board).  Initially, that plan was an incentive to get students to move from the residence halls to our plush apartments.  J  It worked well, and the full kitchens allow us to encourage students to cook on their own and learn about preparing meals and fellowshipping together in that context.

 

If they ask, we also allow student teachers to be on this honors meal plan since they have such an extensive off-campus schedule during the semester that they’re student teaching.

 

I hope this helps!

 

------------------------------------------------

Corey Ross

Associate Dean of Student Life

LeTourneau University (www.letu.edu)

 

From: discuss...@acsdhome.org [mailto:discuss...@acsdhome.org] On Behalf Of Brent Kooi
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 11:36 AM
To: dis...@acsdhome.org
Subject: -ACSD- Meal Plans

 

Hello All –