Meal Plan options

[DawnM]

Good lord.  When I went to school you had two options.....full meal plan or commuter meal plan.  The end.

 

Now every college has like 10 options.  And they are different for each college.

 

I am not looking for advice for me, I know that the options are there because there are varying needs.  And I am assuming my child will be in an upper class-man apartment style place as a transfer student.  That is what he is hoping for.

 

But I am curious as to the plan you and yours chose.  

[plansrme]

Can I just say what a scam I think meal plans are???  "Back in the day," I lived in a dorm and got by without a meal plan.  Yep, I managed to get myself fed with what the school called the "Chef's Club," which was a debit card you used only in the cafeterias.  You paid for what you ate--radical concept, I know--and they billed you for it at the end of each month.  Everyone else did the same thing, and no one starved.  These meal plans that are ubiquitous (even at my alma mater--the expense of the meal plan is one of the reasons my niece is planning to live off-campus her first year) are, in my opinion, mandated primarily as a revenue generator.  Really, if a kid can't manage to get himself fed without a pre-paid meal plan, maybe he's not ready for college.  I see it as another data point on our extending childhood into the territory formerly known as young adulthood.

[Gwen in VA]

My kids did the math for their personal needs and bought the one with the lowest cost per meal for approximately the number of meals they wanted. For my older ones, that meant the meal plan that basically allowed them lunch plus occasional dinners on campus. (They had access to a kitchen.)

 

My youngest lives off campus, so she does the plan that gives her approximately six meal on campus per week. She usually takes those meals in the form of lunch. Her campus is unusual in that it allows her to bring her own personal food (bagged lunch) into the dining hall, so if she is feeling social but is out of meals she can still eat with others.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Gwen in VA

[Guest]

freshman year for one left him hungry -- lunch was not all you can eat, and the small high fat/carb/novegorfruit meal plus the lines turned him off to ever buying lunch on campus..usually he'd make lunch in his dorm kitchen then use his meal swipe for latenight. breakfast was annoying because it was like a toll road stop...choose what station you want, stand in a long line and pick, then if you want one thing off another station, stand in another line.  No cafeteria style available.

 

other kid has little choice, but its close to all inclusive.  Doing the math, dorm residents should buy any of the plans but apt residents should pay as they go.

 

when i was in college it was one plan -- dorm cafeteria all you can eat, on campus places were not included in the meal plan and no a la carte at the dorm cafeteria. the quality level was very very low..heated up canned things and lots of carbs, no Sunday evening meal (and it was not a commuter college). People would eat the MRE of the time or make PBJs in their room to get protein.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Heigh Ho

[elegantlion]

Ds and I have no meal plan as commuter students. One thing to consider is how far meal are from your classes. Our campus is fairly small, but the cafeteria where you can use a "meal" is on end, while if you have classes on the other, it could be hard to get there for lunch. We also have flex dollars which can be used at the other restaurants located in two of the most popular buildings and those would come in more handy than a meal count for many students. It's hard to know that if you're not familiar with campus. Ds and I just pay as we eat. The flex dollars expire each semester and some students have a lot left over, so they will buy bags of snacks or sodas. It makes me wonder if their parents know or care about how much flex money is wasted. 

[happypamama]

I recall that our school had like five levels, but it was all based on a certain number of points (where a point was a dollar). Breakfast was a certain number of points, lunch another amount, and dinner a third. Didn’t matter which cafeteria, and they were all AYCE plus a carry out fruit or ice cream. And the food was quite good. Sync least four entree options every meal, plus always cereal, ice cream, salad, sandwiches, pizza, MYO omelets and such at certain cafeterias. And the points were also good at the on campus restaurants and snack bars, although if you did those every meal, you’d run out of points. But really, they were very generous. There was no excuse for going hungry or not having food you liked. I hope it’s still that flexible! I think now they have LionCash, which somehow connects purchases in town to your account, but I’m not sure if that’s also separate from the meal plan or not. I really liked the points and not a set number of meals.

[Julie of KY]

Well, the choice is easy for my son. The only choice this year is  the freshman meal plan - 21 meals per week. Also all live on campus.

I think the meal plans are way overpriced, but the scholarship is paying for most of it.

[DawnM]

We calculated private school's meals to be around $10/meal while public college costs were around $6/meal.  

 

Both had some "bucks" of some sort for their full access and "mostly access."

 

If we stay in NC and if he chooses the public college, there are several options, one of which is just 50 meals total for $300.  No "bucks" added.  It is the only plan that is refillable AND doesn't expire so it can roll over to the next semester/year if he doesn't use it all.   That seems like the best option for him, with a "bucks" card on the side that we could also refill.  I assume he will be in an apt. style housing option.  His only issue is that he doesn't drive and the PS is somewhat remote.  However, it is also only 1.5 hours from home so we can visit and he could come home a couple times per month and restock on apt. food for b-fast, etc....

 

Anyway, right now we have no options, as he hasn't finished his application for two schools and has only done the initial application for the 3rd.

 

If we move to CA, he will live at home, so a meal plan isn't necessary (and they have no meal plan anyway.)

 

So many choices......

[8filltheheart]

We originally got dd the 16 meal plan, but she isn't using 1/2 the swipes, so she is dropping down to 10 next semester.

[Pawz4me]

DS21 stayed in a private-but-affiliated-with-the-university dorm his first two years. They have their own dining hall and gave the option of upgrading a meal plan at any point, but you couldn't downgrade. We started him with the middle-of-the-road plan to begin with but quickly realized we needed to upgrade. I'm pretty sure we saved lots of money on food those two years. Not because their meal plan was inexpensive (far from it) but because he's such a big eater. He runs and works out all the time and so consumes a ton of calories. Plus he's a very healthy eater so even feeding him at home is costly. His food costs have been significantly more since he moved to an apartment and is doing his own cooking.

 

DS18's university's meal plan really isn't a plan IMO. Their food is priced per item (like a regular restaurant). You can choose to put however much money you want on their meal card and any food purchased on campus (including sports events, vending machines, convenience store) comes out of that bucket.

[DawnM]

Interesting that some of your meal plans are ind. food prices rather than AYCE.   The private option has diff. options, but you either get a meal.....which is defined by a side, a main dish, a dessert, and a drink.....or an AYCE option.  Same price.

 

Or, you can use your "bucks" to go to the a-la-cart options.

 

I haven't looked at the PS option enough to know yet.  This is a new option we are considering.

[teachermom2834]

The school my senior plans to attend offers a variety of plans unlike oldest ds who is at a private school with one cafeteria and just unlimited access.

 

In looking at the plans what annoys me the most is that the most expensive option is only a few bucks a week more than the more limited options. I feel like a cheaper plan and ds using his swipes wisely, budgeting his flex dollars, etc. would be ideal. But- it is like going to the movies and the giant popcorn is 25 cents more than the small.

 

We'll probably err on the side of the bigger plan initially. There is a period in the first few weeks you can change it and you can change after the semester. I do appreciate a variety of options though instead of forcing students into particular plans as I have seen elsewhere.

[FriedClams]

DD is a DE student at a local 4 year university, so we put a little on her card for snacks and lunch. What was shocking to me when we lived in a college town were the local restaurants that took the college cards. It stuck me that meals plans should be for reasonably priced, healthy, available options on campus - not high priced, super junk fast food. Apparently my eyes will be opened this time next year when DD is a senior!

[teachermom2834]

DD is a DE student at a local 4 year university, so we put a little on her card for snacks and lunch. What was shocking to me when we lived in a college town were the local restaurants that took the college cards. It stuck me that meals plans should be for reasonably priced, healthy, available options on campus - not high priced, super junk fast food. Apparently my eyes will be opened this time next year when DD is a senior!

Local SEC school started to accept meal cards at the football stadium (I assume flex dollars). Can you imagine some of the parents getting the call that their flex dollars are all used up on overpriced concessions??? I was always frugal but my younger sis would have been the type to buy her whole dorm floor concessions with a semester's worth of meal dollars. Lol. So when I saw those cards being swiped for concessions I cringed.

[katilac]

Even though we send a lot of 'real' food for dd's freezer, we still have her on the 3 meals a day plan. "Meeting in the caf" is a big social thing at my dd's school, and she can be introverted, so it's worth it for the easy social interaction alone. It's all you can eat, with way too many delicious desserts, and they are allowed to take out a piece of fruit or a couple of cookies. 

 

Also, it works out to less than $5 per meal, and you can barely get a soft drink and snack for that anywhere. It's worth it even if she doesn't eat a full meal. 

 

"Back in the day," I lived in a dorm and got by without a meal plan.   

 

 

I bet my "back in the day" goes back further than yours  :lol:  and we had required meal plans. Definitely not a new thing. And it must vary a lot by school, because we found it pretty reasonable per meal almost everywhere we looked. 

 

My youngest wants to go to South Alabama because their cafeteria plan is truly unlimited - her eyes got wide as saucers when the guide told them they could eat 10 times a day if they wanted to, lol. She can eat a truly amazing quantity of food for someone whose weight is still in double digits. 

[catz]

Can I just say what a scam I think meal plans are???  "Back in the day," I lived in a dorm and got by without a meal plan.  Yep, I managed to get myself fed with what the school called the "Chef's Club," which was a debit card you used only in the cafeterias.  You paid for what you ate--radical concept, I know--and they billed you for it at the end of each month.  Everyone else did the same thing, and no one starved.  These meal plans that are ubiquitous (even at my alma mater--the expense of the meal plan is one of the reasons my niece is planning to live off-campus her first year) are, in my opinion, mandated primarily as a revenue generator.  Really, if a kid can't manage to get himself fed without a pre-paid meal plan, maybe he's not ready for college.  I see it as another data point on our extending childhood into the territory formerly known as young adulthood.

 

?  That is one type of meal plan. Not that I don't think the largest options can't be scams for some people.  But some of my son's friends put away a ton of food and some of those bigger plans might be necessary.  I'm glad there are different options. I don't disagree that most on campus housing and food plans is too expensive.

[DawnM]

 

 

Also, it works out to less than $5 per meal, and you can barely get a soft drink and snack for that anywhere. It's worth it even if she doesn't eat a full meal. 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh wow, that is really reasonable.  None of the options I am looking at work out to that amount.

 

Our dilemma is that DS doesn't drive AND is not social, so no guarantees he can get a ride to the grocery store to stock up.  If he is at the close-by school, we can run up there every other weekend or he can come home and stock up, but if not, we will have to figure something out.

[Corraleno]

As the parent of a 6'6" athlete who eats like a horse, I'm probably one of the few people who thinks the meal plan is a good deal, lol. DS's (future) team is unusual in having morning practices instead of evening, so they provide breakfast/brunch for the team Mon-Fri, plus they have a pantry full of protein shakes, sports drinks, granola bars, and other snacks that kids can help themselves to.

 

The unlimited meal plan works out to $5.30/meal (for 21 meals/wk), although you can go as many times as you want, so for someone who ate 4 meals/day it would be really cheap! The downside with the unlimited plan is that you can only use the card in one of the cafeterias, you can't trade "swipes" for meals at any other food places. DS will probably go with the 14 meal plan, which is AYCE for one "swipe" at any of the cafeterias, or you can trade a swipe for $8 credit at any of the dozen or so a la carte places on campus. It works out to about $8.50/meal, but then breakfast is free, so about $120/wk for all he can eat. I'm thinking my weekly food bill will probably go down by about the same amount as the meal plan. 

 

Housing, OTOH, is a total rip-off. :thumbdown: It's over $1000/mo for a double, and students are required to live on campus for 2 years. Once he can move off campus, the housing expense should be cut in half.

[FaithManor]

Ours lives on campus in a dorm with a fully stocked kitchen that students can use. He has no meal plan and does his own grocery shopping and cooking along with a couple of friends. They are eating better and more than they did on the meal plan their first semester away. He even lost weight and is medically underweight to begin with so we had to stop that.

 

My current commuter student packs.

 

The senior...I guess we will see what's up when his acceptances and financial award letters come in, and he makes a decision.

 

When i went many moons ago there was only commuter or full meal plan for residents and the food options were very limited.

 

ETA when he was on the two meals per day plan, given that he was on campus 105 days due to coming home on breaks that semester, the cost was $11.47 per meal.

Edited October 11, 2017 by FaithManor

[Corraleno]

Can I just say what a scam I think meal plans are???  "Back in the day," I lived in a dorm and got by without a meal plan.  Yep, I managed to get myself fed with what the school called the "Chef's Club," which was a debit card you used only in the cafeterias.  You paid for what you ate--radical concept, I know--and they billed you for it at the end of each month.  Everyone else did the same thing, and no one starved.  These meal plans that are ubiquitous (even at my alma mater--the expense of the meal plan is one of the reasons my niece is planning to live off-campus her first year) are, in my opinion, mandated primarily as a revenue generator.  Really, if a kid can't manage to get himself fed without a pre-paid meal plan, maybe he's not ready for college.  I see it as another data point on our extending childhood into the territory formerly known as young adulthood.

I don't understand why a student who uses a prepaid card at the cafeteria would be "less ready for college" than one who uses a pay-as-you-go card? The experience for the student is pretty much the same (swipe a card), other than needing to pay the bill monthly vs at the beginning of the semester.

 

DS's school does offer a plan where you put a certain amount on the card at the beginning of the semester and are charged for each meal as you go; any money left over at the end of the semester rolls over to the next semester. I think that plan makes sense for commuters or light eaters. For heavy eaters whose dorm and classes are near one of the cafeterias, the unlimited plan is a good deal; you could have three big meals and a late-night study snack for less than $16/day. Or you could go without a meal plan and just pay with a debit card for what you eat, but I don't think you'd have access to the cafeterias and prices at the other cafes and restaurants on campus are higher without a meal plan (35% discount if you use a meal card).

[J-rap]

I agree -- so many plans these days!  When I was in college, you either had a plan or you didn't.  If you had a plan, it was for all meals, as much as you wanted.  I remember some of the athletes had their trays lined with sometimes 8 glasses of milk.

 

My dd has lived in a campus apartment for most of her years.  She'd generally get a plan that covered 5 meals/week, and then it also came with a cash amount (something like $400) to use at the campus coffeeshop/bagel shop anytime.  She liked having breakfast in her apartment and usually just had lunch on the run.  Dinner was generally in the cafeteria then.

 

This year for the first time she opted to have no meal plan.  It's her last year, and she enjoys cooking and eating in her campus apartment with her roommate.

 

 

 

 

[DawnM]

As the parent of a 6'6" athlete who eats like a horse, I'm probably one of the few people who thinks the meal plan is a good deal, lol. DS's (future) team is unusual in having morning practices instead of evening, so they provide breakfast/brunch for the team Mon-Fri, plus they have a pantry full of protein shakes, sports drinks, granola bars, and other snacks that kids can help themselves to.

 

The unlimited meal plan works out to $5.30/meal (for 21 meals/wk), although you can go as many times as you want, so for someone who ate 4 meals/day it would be really cheap! The downside with the unlimited plan is that you can only use the card in one of the cafeterias, you can't trade "swipes" for meals at any other food places. DS will probably go with the 14 meal plan, which is AYCE for one "swipe" at any of the cafeterias, or you can trade a swipe for $8 credit at any of the dozen or so a la carte places on campus. It works out to about $8.50/meal, but then breakfast is free, so about $120/wk for all he can eat. I'm thinking my weekly food bill will probably go down by about the same amount as the meal plan. 

 

Housing, OTOH, is a total rip-off. :thumbdown: It's over $1000/mo for a double, and students are required to live on campus for 2 years. Once he can move off campus, the housing expense should be cut in half.

 

Is it $1000 including food or no food?  That is high. The private school we are looking at is $1000/mo for just housing, another amount for food.

[Corraleno]

Is it $1000 including food or no food?  That is high. The private school we are looking at is $1000/mo for just housing, another amount for food.

That is room only — $8350/yr to share a small bedroom.  :thumbdown:

 

Once he is allowed to move off campus, he can have his own room in a shared house for half that. 

[plansrme]

I don't understand why a student who uses a prepaid card at the cafeteria would be "less ready for college" than one who uses a pay-as-you-go card? The experience for the student is pretty much the same (swipe a card), other than needing to pay the bill monthly vs at the beginning of the semester.

 

 

 

The rationale I have repeatedly seen for mandatory meal plans is that the schools want to make sure students eat--implying that if the college doesn't make you eat, you'll forget.  If a college has to make your parents pre-pay for a certain number of meals to make sure that you will eat, then I question whether you should be going off to college. 

 

The primary difference between the meal plans and the credit card I described are (1) the meal plan requires that you eat at their cafeterias X number of times/week to get anywhere close to your money's worth; and (2) light eaters subsidize heavy eaters.  A credit card obviously does none of this (the program I describe was not a pre-paid card; it was essentially a credit card run by the university).  You want to eat in our cafeteria?  Knock yourself out; just swipe your credit or debit card, and we'll bill you each month, or Visa can bill you.  Your card, your choice.   You want to eat in your dorm room?  More power to ya'; your regular ol' debit card works just fine at Kroger.  The university ran their dining program like restaurants.

 

Anyway, my primary point is that I don't buy that the meal plans are mandatory so kids will remember to eat.  I think they are mandatory because that makes them a more productive profit center for the schools.  Maybe there also are benefits for financial aid purposes to including X meal plan in your COA and letting student loans and such take it into account.  Regardless, I am a fan of paying for what you eat and not needing a computer program to figure out which meal plan to buy.  

 

My oldest, who graduates in May, has never eaten in a dining hall on her campus.  She lived on campus but in a student ministries building, and not school-owned housing, her first year, so she was not required to purchase a meal plan (all first-year students who live on campus in U-owned housing are).  She managed not to starve.  My HS senior will get whatever meal plan comes with her athletic scholarship.  In all my wanderings about campus dining halls, I've only come across one that was not set up to accept personal credit or debit cards.  It's not like eliminating meal plans would leave students unable to pay for their meals.

[Pawz4me]

The rationale I have repeatedly seen for mandatory meal plans is that the schools want to make sure students eat--implying that if the college doesn't make you eat, you'll forget.  If a college has to make your parents pre-pay for a certain number of meals to make sure that you will eat, then I question whether you should be going off to college. 

 

**

 

Anyway, my primary point is that I don't buy that the meal plans are mandatory so kids will remember to eat. 

 

It never occurred to me that universities require a meal plan because students might forget to eat, nor would it ever have occurred to me.  :huh:

 

Because it benefits them (the university) financially -- Yes

Because they don't want students going hungry -- Yes

Because they don't want hungry students stealing food -- Yes

 

I don't understand how  having a pre-paid plan would make someone NOT forget to eat.  :confused1:  I keep a fully stocked fridge and pantry and there have been (very rare ;)) times that I've forgotten to eat. And the food is steps away and already paid for. If I'm busy and engrossed in what I'm doing it's irrelevant whether the food is right there and already paid for or not.

[mom2att]

Dd is at state U. Freshman and sophomore years she lived on campus. Freshman year we bought her the AYCE meal plan, just to have one less thing to worry about. There were less expensive, limited swipe plans, but at just a couple hundred dollars cheaper when you're talking several thousand, we went with the higher plan so she wouldn't have to keep track of how many meals she'd eaten that week or have to skip a meal to save a swipe. There was no real bargain plan--all of them were expensive.

 

But she's a petite girl with a smallish appetite, so it was a lot of money we didn't need to spend. Sophomore year we went with no meal plan at all. Instead we spent $200 and bought a larger than dorm sized-fridge, she already had a microwave and toaster, and her room was steps away from the floor kitchen. Instead of paying the U $4-5,000 for a meal plan, I deposited $1,000 in her account so she could buy whatever food she needed for the year. She was also working in one of the dorm cafes at this time, so she got a couple of meals per week free from there. It worked great and saved so much!

 

Junior and senior years she's been off campus in an apartment and loves having a real kitchen.

[Mom22ns]

This was such a huge problem for us!

 

Ds's school doesn't have a meal plan that covers all the meals, the most you could get was just under 10 per week. He would have willingly eaten every meal in the dining hall. He liked their food and didn't want to mess with food on his own. We got the biggest plan they offered, he ate only lunch and dinner 5 days/week and he ran out of meals but was able to use his "dining dollars", that he didn't use in the snack bar—ever, to finish out each semester.

 

Dd on the other hand attends a school where the cheapest plan covers 20 meals/week. She is vegetarian and picky and hated the dining hall food. For her, we started with the plan that covered all the meals, but switched to one that covered the fewest meals but gave the most dining dollars because she would eat at some of the fast food places in the campus center. 

 

Both kids now live in campus apartments and are still required to have meal plans. Finally the plans match them! We get the smallest plan available for each. For dd, that is a plan that just has dining dollars which works out great. For ds, it has no dining dollars and covers about 2 1/2 meals per week. That is working great too, as he just eats on campus twice a week when he happens to be near the dining hall at the right time. Both are very happy to have their own kitchens and have control over their own meals!

 

 

[katilac]

 

Anyway, my primary point is that I don't buy that the meal plans are mandatory so kids will remember to eat.  

 

Okay, but that has nothing to do with kids being prepared for college or not based on their ability to feed themselves, lol. 

[katilac]

 

Because it benefits them (the university) financially -- Yes

Because they don't want students going hungry -- Yes

Because they don't want hungry students stealing food -- Yes

 

 

I'm sure the dining hall has evolved into a profit center for many schools, but I also think that they probably started for sensible reasons.

 

At my college, a long time ago in a galaxy far away, many students could not have fed themselves in anything approaching a nutritious manner without an on-campus dining hall. You could walk to the burger joint and the cheap Chinese takeout, but you could not walk to the grocery store - it wasn't even a quick drive. There were not enough dorm kitchens for everyone to be cooking, it was like one every three floors or something. And most students are not going to be cooking full-fledged, healthy-ish meals anyway. Not because they're lazy, but because they don't have the time, skills, and motivation. Heck, not having time to cook is a common complaint on these boards!

 

At my dd's current dorm, you have to check out a key for the kitchen (yes, THE kitchen). And, no lie, the stovetop went up in flames when I tried to cook for her and her friends (oil left on the burners), the smoke alarm went off, the entire building was evacuated . . . you can't control the cleanliness or safety of a shared kitchen. Sometimes not cooking in college is a very reasonable choice  :lol:

 

It's awesome if a student does have the time, space, and skills to cook, but I don't think it's some moral failing for a student to rely on the dining plan. 

 

I was one of those kids who could not have fed themselves, and I managed to get through college just fine, get jobs, get married, have and raise kids. It did not cripple my ability to live independently forever, lol. I started cooking when I had to, when I didn't have a mom and dad and cafeteria to do it for me, and I'm pretty darn good at it even though my 18-yr-old self wanted nothing to do with it.  

 

Oh wow, that is really reasonable.  None of the options I am looking at work out to that amount.

 

Our dilemma is that DS doesn't drive AND is not social, so no guarantees he can get a ride to the grocery store to stock up.  If he is at the close-by school, we can run up there every other weekend or he can come home and stock up, but if not, we will have to figure something out.

 

I just saw a figure for Duke's 12-meals per week plan for one semester; it costs nearly as much as dd's 21-meals per week plan for the entire year!  :svengo:

 

Check into Uber, Lyft, and school or city shuttles. At my dd's school, the city does a free shuttle run to Target and Walmart every Friday evening. Friends with cars take her almost everywhere she needs to go, and Uber fills in the rest. She was reluctant to ask about rides at first, but finally realized it was no big deal at all. 

[G5052]

My oldest is a commuter student. He does martial arts and weight training in between classes. Think hungry, muscular male.

 

We tried to figure out how to pack him enough food and ended up getting a meal plan. They allow you to buy a set number of meals in a block for the cafeterias and then add on $$$ for spending at food courts with Subway, Chipotle, etc. It frankly took us awhile to figure out!

 

He likes the food though, even at the cafeterias. He goes to the "global" one that has a lot of ethnic food most of the time. Subway and a pizza place are closer to his classes when he only has 45 minutes for lunch. If he stays in the evening for a group project or study group, he eats dinner there.

 

 

[DawnM]

I'm sure the dining hall has evolved into a profit center for many schools, but I also think that they probably started for sensible reasons.

 

At my college, a long time ago in a galaxy far away, many students could not have fed themselves in anything approaching a nutritious manner without an on-campus dining hall. You could walk to the burger joint and the cheap Chinese takeout, but you could not walk to the grocery store - it wasn't even a quick drive. There were not enough dorm kitchens for everyone to be cooking, it was like one every three floors or something. And most students are not going to be cooking full-fledged, healthy-ish meals anyway. Not because they're lazy, but because they don't have the time, skills, and motivation. Heck, not having time to cook is a common complaint on these boards!

 

At my dd's current dorm, you have to check out a key for the kitchen (yes, THE kitchen). And, no lie, the stovetop went up in flames when I tried to cook for her and her friends (oil left on the burners), the smoke alarm went off, the entire building was evacuated . . . you can't control the cleanliness or safety of a shared kitchen. Sometimes not cooking in college is a very reasonable choice  :lol:

 

It's awesome if a student does have the time, space, and skills to cook, but I don't think it's some moral failing for a student to rely on the dining plan. 

 

I was one of those kids who could not have fed themselves, and I managed to get through college just fine, get jobs, get married, have and raise kids. It did not cripple my ability to live independently forever, lol. I started cooking when I had to, when I didn't have a mom and dad and cafeteria to do it for me, and I'm pretty darn good at it even though my 18-yr-old self wanted nothing to do with it.  

 

 

I just saw a figure for Duke's 12-meals per week plan for one semester; it costs nearly as much as dd's 21-meals per week plan for the entire year!  :svengo:

 

Check into Uber, Lyft, and school or city shuttles. At my dd's school, the city does a free shuttle run to Target and Walmart every Friday evening. Friends with cars take her almost everywhere she needs to go, and Uber fills in the rest. She was reluctant to ask about rides at first, but finally realized it was no big deal at all. 

 

He may make friends at some point, but he has AUTISM, he won't get in a car with a stranger, even if he is paying for it.   The best we could do is grocery delivery.  At one school I did read that the convenience store across the street takes the dining dollars, so he could at least get some bread and PB&J.  But my guess is that we will have to visit at least once a month and stock him up on some things.  If he goes to the school closest, he can come home every weekend, so the cheapest dining plan and stocking up on essentials every week would work.

[katilac]

He may make friends at some point, but he has AUTISM, he won't get in a car with a stranger, even if he is paying for it.   The best we could do is grocery delivery. 

 

I can't go by that, my cousin has autism, and he would get into a white van driven by a clown carrying a machete. He wouldn't talk to the clown, but he'd hop in the van if it was going to Walmart. 

 

Would he do a shuttle or bus? Shuttle meaning small bus, trolley, and so on. It goes around like a city bus, it's not one-on-one. Some kind of system like that was in place at a lot of the schools we visited. 

 

Amazon Prime Pantry should work for almost everything but perishables. You can even buy bread, and it's not stupidly expensive. 

Edited October 13, 2017 by katilac

[DawnM]

I can't go by that, my cousin has autism, and he would get into a white van driven by a clown carrying a machete. He wouldn't talk to the clown, but he'd hop in the van if it was going to Walmart. 

 

Would he do a shuttle or bus? Shuttle meaning small bus, trolley, and so on. It goes around like a city bus, it's not one-on-one. Some kind of system like that was in place at a lot of the schools we visited. 

 

Amazon Prime Pantry should work for almost everything but perishables. You can even buy bread, and it's not stupidly expensive. 

 

If there is a shuttle he might, but not everywhere has one.