As spring 2025 has officially kicked off, Chatham University students who reside on upper campus received an email communication from Parkhurst dining on Jan. 3 with information regarding meal plans for the semester. It was stated in the email that instead of a set numerical value for a semester, meal plans will be changing to a weekly numerical value.
This change has raised a few concerns regarding how students are best utilizing their meal swipes. Swipes not used by the end of the week expire if not used.
In the email, Parkhurst stated “to improve meal plan usage and tracking, meal swipes for Residential Plans will reset weekly between Saturday and Sunday at midnight.”
Though it was said that the switch was initiated to advance meal plans and tracking, Chatham also prides itself on promoting sustainability, as emphasized by Parkhurst General Manager Mike Logesky.
“These meal plan changes were implemented to provide more consistent access to food for all students while helping to minimize food insecurities across our campus,” Logesky said via email.
Throughout semesters, a trend has been noticed of students having excess meal swipes by the end of the term, but still having to pay for them with their meal plans.
“The intention behind this method is to help students better manage usage of their chosen plan while maintaining consistent access to food each week of the semester,” Logesky said. “This also helps further the University’s commitment to sustainability by having a more consistent number of guests eating each week.”
Logesky spoke regarding the process behind the final decision to build meal plans upon a weekly foundation.
“During the process of restructuring meal plans, a Meal Plan Utilization Audit was conducted, gathering student data to help guide the new plan structure,” Logesky said. “This data confirmed food insecurities were occurring mid to late semester due to overutilization early in the semester.”
Some students communicated that despite the email, they did not realize that their meal plans would be affected. Carmela Capasso ‘27 expressed her frustration as she came to the realization that her meal swipes were expiring.
“Initially, I was very angry because I was losing meal swipes. And I didn’t realize I was going to lose those meal swipes at first after the first week,” she said.
Additionally, students required to purchase what is referred to as the “Unlimited Plan” have also noticed this change has affected their meal plans. While “unlimited,” these students are afforded 21 meals each week.
“I definitely think it is a negative compared to the previous option. As a first year, I was required to buy an unlimited meal plan; putting a weekly cap [on meal swipes] does not feel unlimited to me,” said Brady Mensch ‘28 in an email interview.
Despite these concerns, not all students seem to mind the switch.
“Personally, I do not have any qualms about [the new meal plans]. I have been running it close each week, but so far, I haven’t run out,” Mensch said.
