Students entering the 2013-2014 school year may have immediately noticed the changes to Lipscomb’s meal plans upon returning to campus.
In the past, Sodexo, Lipscomb’s dining company, offered meal plans with a set number of Bison Café meals and dining dollars per semester. This year, Sodexo has changed the meal plans to offer a set number of meals per week and a set number of dining dollars per semester.
The company has also added the Bison Bucks system, a program that allocates funds to be used at select Lipscomb and off-campus locations through the use of new ID cards. Although the meal plan for Village residents is the only one that currently includes Bison Bucks as a part of the package, any student can purchase Bison Bucks with their own money online.
As this is the first semester for Bison Bucks, some students are currently contemplating the benefits of taking part in the new program.
According to Wolcott Fary, Lipscomb’s Food Service General Manager, there are three main benefits to Bison Bucks.
- Budgeting: “It’s geared to you personally,” Fary said. Fary suggested that is a good way for students to budget their money by knowing exactly how much they have to spend.
- Future specials: Although there are no automatic price reductions on products bought with Bison Bucks, Fary ensures that this is an investment in these restaurants, and he foresees some specials for student’s benefit could be added in the future. “The restaurants, as we get rolling with it, will probably run some specials that will only be available to folks with Bison Bucks. That will be up to them specifically,” Fary said.
- Secure gifting: “When you think of it from a student’s parents perspective, or any family member that wants to help a student during school time and doesn’t feel comfortable giving cash, they can go online and actually add money to the Bison Bucks account,” Fray said in regards to the security benefit of depositing Bison Bucks into a student’s account.
There are currently 8 off-campus locations where Bison Bucks can be used. Fary suggests that future venues could be added to the program.
“The off campus Sodexo team is constantly trying to communicate and make contracts with restaurant vendors all the time, so there could be a point where you have 16 options,” Fary said.
As far as meal options go, Sodexo has began a new approach to the meal plan system by regulating the number of meals a student can use per week.
After complaints from parents and students that they were having too many meals and money left over at the end of the semester, the university called on the senior Sodexo leadership team to make changes to the former program.
“They asked us to present them with options with the intention of not having any left over money on either side [meals or dining dollars] at the end of the semester,” Fary said.
The meal plans in place for this school year are a result of Sodexo’s suggestions. The number of meals students have per week reset each Friday morning, so the idea is that the students will use their allotted meals per week during that time. Fary also noted that if students run out of meals, dining dollars may be used upstairs in the Bison Cafe.
Currently, there is no way to add meals to a plan in the middle of the semester. Fary asserted that there will be an evaluation made by Sodexo around Christmas to assess how the new options are working. Based on the results of the evaluation, Lipscomb could potentially tweak meal plan options.
Below is the mapping of how the meal plans have changed from the past school year to the current one.
In addition to the changes in the actual meal plans, Lipscomb has also made changes to the Bison Café’s hours of operation.
This year, the Bison Café is open from 7:15 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and is now open 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
To ensure the continued improvements in Lipscomb dining, Sodexo will be gathering a food committee of students. Fary says they will be looking for volunteers to meet once a month in the late afternoon to discuss how things are running from the students perspective. According to Fary, the goal of the committee is to get direct input from students on what is working and what is not.
If students are interested in being on the food committee, they may contact Marketing Coordinator Elizabeth Wilson at Elizabeth.Wilson@sodexo.com.
If students still have unanswered questions regarding the 2013-2014 meal plans, they can visit Lipscomb dining’s official website.
Additional reporting by Brianne Welch. Photo credit: Brianne Welch.