Is The Meal Worth The Money?

At Frostburg State University, most students rely on their meal plan to purchase food when on campus. Although, what some students may not know is that there a lot of conditions associated with Frostburg’s meal plans, and they may not be getting their full money’s worth. Unfortunately, students who reside on Frostburg’s campus are unable to opt out of having a meal plan because they are required to purchase one of the listed options. However, students who reside off-campus or in Edgewood Commons apartments have the luxury of choosing if purchasing a meal plan is the best financial fit for them.

Below is an overview of the offered meal plans (price is per semester)

Meal plans can often look appealing to students because they come with a certain amount of “bonus bucks,” which works as a dollar amount that can be used when a student wishes to make a purchase on campus that is not covered by a “meal.” However, there is a fine print associated with bonus bucks: unused bonus bucks will only roll over from fall to spring if a meal plan is purchased both semesters, and students will not be issued a refund for the amount of unused bonus bucks that are left at the end of the spring semester.

There is also a fine print when it comes to purchasing any of the above meal plans. Once the semester starts, students are unable to change their plan unless they are upgrading it, and in the event that a student does not use the total meals their plan offers per week, the meals will not roll over to the next week. The unused meals essentially go to waste because students can’t even use their excess meals to purchase another person’s food for them. To understand exactly how much money a student is losing when a meal goes unused simply reference the chart below, which displays the cash cost of eating at the campus’s main food provider, Chesapeake Dining Hall.

If the loss of unused meals and bonus bucks wasn’t bad enough, the only time the use of a meal plan will cover a student's entire cost of food is if the student is eating in the Chesapeake Dining Hall. If a student wishes to use their meal plan to purchase food at Appalachian Station, Moe’s, or Subway, they can do so with what is referred to as “meal exchange,” but the program is only offered during certain hours of the day and only a portion of the meal cost will be covered. Those with meal plan 5, however, are offered a higher value for meal exchange prices than those with meal plans 1-4.

Below is an overview of the meal exchange program

To put things in perspective, let’s talk about the out of pocket cost for getting lunch at Moe’s during the meal exchange hours. The cost of a meal at Moe’s is $10.37, which includes a burrito, a drink, and a side. When a student with plans 1-4 uses meal exchange they still must pay $3.37 out of pocket or with bonus bucks to cover the difference.

Okay, so what if a student with meal plan 1 decided they wanted to get all 10 meals a week at Moe’s and wanted to do so for all 16 weeks of the semester? Bonus bucks would only cover the price difference for 22 meals, so the price difference for meals exceeding 22 would need to come out of pocket. Another interesting fact is that the total cost of Moe’s for the semester would be $1,659.20, which is $79 cheaper than the price for meal plan 1.

The amount financial loss will differ for each student depending on a number of factors, but it is clear that students lose money in the long run when they purchase a meal plan.

A mural in Frostburg State University’s Lane Center

 advertising Moe’s Southwest Grill