Board Games

Complex campus meal-plan options offer flexibility, value and variety

By Margaret Sheridan, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 8/15/2003

Meeting the foodservice needs of the college market means serving a demanding, fast-moving clientele. University students eat when, where and how they want, with a strong bias toward con-venience. Restricted serving hours, double-tray cafeteria lines and bland offerings are fading memories of an era when foodservice departments dictated terms to captive audiences.

No more. Today, campus dining is a buyer’s market. QSRs and convenience stores circle schools, making readily available choices that more closely meet changing student tastes. College foodservice managers are challenged to think creatively about meal plans that will keep students and their dining dollars on campus. To please youthful palates and return profits, plans must offer not only flexibility, flavor and value, but often name brands as well. Navigating the many choices can be students’ first college test.

Time-release plans
The more flexible the plan, the higher the participation, says Bill Maloney, director of student dining at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Students there have two meal plans: a debit-card system or a weekly plan in four price categories. Either can be used anywhere on campus and students can change or amend plans at any time. Balances that remain at the end of a term credit to the student’s account for next term. “Customers don’t feel pressured to use up their plans,’’ says Maloney.

Miami’s 7,000 meal-plan resident students prefer the debit-card system two-to-one. Stored credit can even be applied to parking fines. When the card’s ease and flexibility were marketed to off-campus commuter students, their participation increased 5% to 5,000 meal-plan users.

Binding ties
Maximizing meal-plan revenues benefits colleges by allowing them to strike better purchasing terms with vendors. At Ohio University in Athens, for example, the five meal plans are less flexible than at many other schools. Plans must be purchased for the entire academic year, and credit for uneaten meals is neither carried to the next term nor refunded. Such strictures allow OU dining services to enter into cost-effective yearlong contracts with vendors, says Rich Neumann, assistant director for dining services.

Iowa State University in Ames has introduced a continuous-access meal-plan program for the current term. It features five plans, each with a different amount of “dining dollars.” The change came after a study of traditional plans showed that 49% of meals went unused. Board plans contribute $17 million of Iowa State’s $25 million in foodservice revenues.

“We converted those unused meals into dining dollars,’’ says Jon Lewis, director of dining services. “With the new program, subscribers can eat anywhere on campus at their convenience.’’ The program inaugurates a merger of residential dining halls and ISU’s Memorial Union.

Lewis’ greatest challenge is the financial unknown. “You’ve got to price right, so dining centers and retail will not suffer. It’s always a risk.’’

Constant input
Restaurants are Connie Foster’s biggest competition at the University of California at Los Angeles, where off-campus options are plentiful and varied. When she hears raves about a burger place in neighboring Westwood or a cool coffeehouse in Santa Monica, the UCLA assistant director of dining services is quick to check it out.

Campus meal-plan participation is mandatory, but Foster sees value in staying tuned to food trends and diner preferences. To do so, she solicits feedback during weekly residence-hall meetings, sets focus groups and takes students on outings to local restaurants.

“Our basic plan is traditional, what I call ‘one swipe, one meal,’” she says. What separates the school’s five basic plan variations are number of meals covered (from 11 to 19) and whether missed meals are accumulated or lost. The plans, used by 7,300 students, contribute $23 million to total foodservice revenues of $33 million. All plans utilize UCLA’s full-fare residential-housing restaurants and three “fast-food boutiques.”

A recent initiative, My Pizza, allows students to place online orders for pizza, Buffalo wings and soft drinks between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. for pick up between 9 p.m. and midnight. Students pay cash or swipe meal cards when collecting their snacks. During June, 2,100 pizzas and 1,856 pounds of chicken wings were ordered online.

UCLA also lets students buy sack lunches during breakfast hours. They create and pack the meals for later, choosing from breads, bagels and deli meats. Counted as one meal on the plan, sack lunches enable students to use their meal plan when they are off campus or busy at mid-day.

Dollars and dinosaurs
Meal plans need incentives and marketing to attract participation. “You’ve got to make it easy for customers to sign up for plans and add money to their accounts,’’ says H. David Porter, a foodservice industry consultant based in Crofton, Md. He advises including incentives such as guest-meal options and suggests that schools market plans throughout the academic year, not just at freshman orientations.

Other inducements include allowing students and parents to check meal-account balances via the Internet. To entice more freshmen to commit to campus dining, the University of California at San Diego lowered the minimum meal-plan cost from $2,100 to $1,800 and opened more foodservice outlets and c-stores where students can spend dining dollars. And at the University of Georgia in Athens, free parking for commuter meal-plan holders generates business for Michael Floyd, head of food services.

In acknowledgement of those who pay most of the bills, parents eat free at Providence College in Providence, R.I., says Warren Gray, assistant vice president of business services, who also increased the number of guest passes for each meal plan. Both measures brought higher student participation, he adds.

However, not all students want “campus bucks” useable in multiple dining venues across campus. Some colleges still choose community over flexibility. The 1,700 residential students at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, for example, prefer one dining hall and set service hours.

“We’re a dinosaur,’’ jokes Director of Dining Christine Schwartz. “The students even opposed our idea to decentralize dining. We’re a small, old New England college. We’re like one big family.’’

At another Maine campus, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, students consider communal dining part of their social life. “It’s a fun part of the college experience,’’ says Mary McAteer Kennedy, director of dining services.

The missed-meals factor

Schools make money based on missed meals that are paid for but not eaten. The benchmark average is 37%. At Michigan State University in East Lansing, prepaid revenues from a 40% missed-meal factor help Bruce Haskell, director of food services, keep the operation running in the black. You need to provide the right amount of flexibility in plans, choices and venues while protecting the bottom line, he says.

Parents of incoming freshmen often purchase plans that are too expansive, resulting in missed meals, and upperclassmen skip more meals than underclassman. Freshmen, unaccustomed to foodservice freedom, learn that dining routines on campus are less regulated than at home, according to Warren Gray, assistant vice president of business services at Providence College in Providence, R.I. “Student eating habits are unique and unpredictable. Unlike home, they don’t have to show up,’’ says Gray, who puts his campus’s missed meals at about 30%.