by Bridgette Begle | Sep 3, 2013 | News Slider
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,”...
by Nick Glende | Jul 5, 2013 | News Slider
Lipscomb Dining has cooked up a few new offerings for the fall, including the addition of an off-campus mean option and extra hours for dinner. General Manager Wolcott Fary revealed that the dining hall will be adding extra hours to the schedule, meeting the request of many late-dining students. “Extending hours in the dining room: it hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen this fall,” Fary said. “The dining room will stay open an extra 30 minutes and will now be open every Saturday.” The dining room will now be open 7 days a week, and normal hours of operation will be from 7:15 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The long-talked about off-campus dining option is also now a reality, with the first wave of restaurants being commissioned for the fall. “Starting this fall, you’ll be able to use your Bison Bucks at certain local restaurants within a five-mile radius of the school,” Fary said. “The off-campus solutions team with Sodexo are in the process right now of going to more than 35 local restaurants to contract with them each individually to see if they want to become a part of the program. Each contract will be different, and there’s some outlay for the restaurants to become part of the program. Each restaurant will have to decide on its own whether it feels like it can get enough business to support the cost of maintaining the program.” No restaurants can be absolutely confirmed at this time, but Fary disclosed a few of the restaurants on the list, including Copper Kettle, Subway, The Cheesecake Factory and Nero’s Grill. Food-to-go in planning stages, dietary options...
by Nick Glende | Oct 6, 2012 | News Slider
After hearing from students, the dining hall has moved up its opening time to 7:15 a.m. instead of 7:30. At last month’s food committee meeting, students expressed their difficulty in eating a healthy breakfast and still making on time to 8 a.m. classes. Junior biology major Cristina Kelley said she never had time to get a balanced meal before her biochemistry class prior to the extra 15 minutes of eating time being added this month. “I still don’t know why they don’t go back to opening at 7, I mean, it’s only 15 minutes earlier. But at least they open at 7:15 now because there was no way I had time to eat breakfast with the old schedule.” In addition to the dining hall, Common Grounds, the coffee shop in Ezell, has also reworked their hours of operation. Common Grounds now will be open 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and 7:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. Though changing the Common Grounds schedule never came up at the food committee meeting, general manager of Sodexo Wolcott Fary did have a reason for the change. “We found out that Tuesdays and Thursdays were more likely days when the graduate classes would need to have food and beverage options,” he said. Also for the month of October, Blue Coast Burrito and Auntie Anne’s will be offering specials. Customers can participate in “build your own soup and fish taco Fridays” at Blue Coast and purchase almond pretzels at Auntie Anne’s. The October specials listed in the email from Lipscomb dining sent out to the student body also include...
by Emily Snell | Aug 14, 2012 | News Slider
Students who complained about leaving too many flex dollars unspent at year’s end along with a survey that showed a desire for more options are in part responsible for Sodexo’s big changes planned for the new school year. “It was actually a collective decision,” said Wolcott Fary, Sodexo general manager, explaining that the changes “came partially from a survey that was done last year…the result being the addition of unlimited options and redirecting of the flex money and adding the dining dollars to get to a point where you had more options…that most likely would fit a broader range of students.” Students who are willing to sacrifice some of their flex dollars can sign up for one of three “Bison All Access” meal plans, which offer unlimited meals in the dining room along with flex dollars in the amount of either $400, $200 or $0, with the cheapest option. “The unlimited meal plans give students more flexibility in the dining room, thinking that the dining room is the primary usage area, and that’s where they’re going to take the bulk of their meals,” Fary said. “The dining dollars then, in place of the flex, give the students the opportunity to supplement their late hour needs for food and their Saturday needs for food when the dining room would either be closed, after hours, or typically on Saturday’s is not open at all.” Elizabeth Wilson, Sodexo’s marketing coordinator, said students, university officials and Sodexo were displeased with the old system which left students with too many unspent –and wasted – flex dollars at the end of the year. “That was...
