PARK: Rutgers must make smaller meal plans more accessible, affordable for students
Column: The Queue
Living off campus, I have the luxury of a kitchen — and a room of my own, of course. As a sophomore and still under 20 years old, I never thought I would be living in a home cooking for myself two or three times a day.
Lucky for me, I enjoy cooking. When I am stressed, chopping and flipping really help me be distracted. And, the best part is that you end up with something yummy as a result.
During my first year at Rutgers, I found myself grabbing a banana or a granola bar for breakfast instead of going to the dining hall. I longed to have a form of eggs that were not powdered or hard-boiled, making the late semester trips to Livingston campus for Henry’s Diner very worthwhile. I had the required 210 meal plan for first-year students last year, and I found myself with a lot left over at the end of both semesters. It felt wasteful.
I was surprised when my parents kept nudging me to get a meal plan this year as I knew I would be living off-campus. I got one of the lower options, simply for convenience, or if my friends and I wanted to get dinner together as many of them still dorm. I was concerned about having to pay for both a meal plan and weekly groceries.
Not even a month into the semester and I have found my meal plan to be extremely advantageous. Even if you do not want to go to Brower Commons on the College Avenue campus — I certainly do not choose to — for any meal, there are still many opportunities for students with meal plans to take advantage of.
The Starbucks truck is back on 3 out of our 5 campuses this semester. Here, students can use a retail meal swipe, which is worth up to $10, and get a Starbucks drink and/or snack. The truck moves to different campuses on different days, and the crew on it keep us updated via Twitter.
Students can also use their meal swipes at certain vendors at sporting events. Everyone’s least favorite part about gameday is the slow hunger that builds as we stand in the sun adorned in scarlet red. As many of you know, stadium food and drinks are not cheap. A retail swipe from your meal plan can get you chicken tenders and fries, a snack bag of your choice and a fountain drink of your choice, or you can switch out the chicken for a soft pretzel.
There are places to get food regularly, too. With Henry’s Diner open at the beginning of this semester, students can use a meal swipe which gets you anything for $12 or less with a complimentary drink. It is decent diner food for a great deal. Woody's Cafe on Busch campus is another hidden gem. It is classic lunch food, burgers, sandwiches, salads, wraps — pretty much anything under the sun for just one meal swipe.
Having easy access to places to eat on campus is such an important part of being a student. Sometimes a sit-down meal at the dining hall is not reasonable and neither is walking the 6-minute trek from my off-campus housing to its nearest bus stop. Not to mention that I need to take a bus to almost all of my classes.
I enjoy coming home after 4 p.m. and taking a good stare at the fridge to see what to eat. But sometimes that is not doable, and my only option is to buy food. With a meal plan, you can have access to readily available services on campus for students.
The main concern surrounding meal plans is the cost: They are certainly not cheap. Off-campus students are not required to have a meal plan currently, but the lowest plan of 50 meal plans a semester is $949. That comes out to $18.98 per swipe, which is way more than what they are worth as a retail swipe. You could grab a Chipotle bowl or even a stir-fry from Honeygrow for less than that. Off-campus students who want a meal plan should not have to pay almost double what retail swipes are worth per swipe just to have one.
If the purpose is convenience, I understand we must pay for that. But meal swipes when living off-campus are opportune. In my schedule, I find them necessary, and I bet that I am not the only one who thinks this way. Rutgers should lower the cost for smaller meal plans — even just $200 could bring the cost down to the same cost as a meal from a local New Brunswick restaurant chain. This would be more of an incentive for off-campus students, and even commuter students, to buy a meal plan in the first place.
While clattering around in the kitchen listening to Harry Styles sing from the speaker settled on the counter is my ideal way to make and have a meal, I will not be getting rid of my meal plan. It proves itself too vital for a busy student lifestyle.
Annabel Park is a sophomore Rutgers Business School sophomore majoring in marketing and minoring in health administration. Her column, "The Queue," runs on alternate Tuesdays.
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