One of the greatest conveniences on Wellesley campus is being able to stroll into any dining hall at nearly any hour of the day (between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.) to grab a bite, free of charge. Wellesley’s unlimited meal plan offers a great deal of ease in ensuring food security, but the reality is that not all Wellesley students are utilizing the full extent of the unlimited meal plan. Some students are DoorDashing every meal, some are grabbing meals off campus, and some are making their own meals in dorm kitchens. The inflexibility of the current all-or-nothing meal plan not only fails to properly address student needs, but it also creates further issues, which is why the meal plan options must be expanded.
This is not meant to slight the hard working dining hall staff who work all day, nearly every day of the year to feed students. Instead, this piece is meant to bring attention to the issues that arise from the inflexibility of the current meal plan. Wellesley students either have unlimited access or no access to the dining halls — a stark contrast from other schools that often offer a varying number of meals per week.
At Wellesley, students on the meal plan can enter the dining halls anytime they are open and freely take meals or snacks. The meal plan also provides students with $75 of Flex Points, which can be used in the Emporium, the Leaky Beaker and Collins Cafe. Students living on campus are required to be on the meal plan, with an exception given to students living in the Scoop residential co-op. Further, students who live off campus are automatically opted out of the meal plan.
The meal plan costs $5,060 per semester, totalling to $10,120 for the entire school year. In contrast, MIT’s most expensive meal plan is $7,220 for the 2024-2025 academic year, Brandeis’s “All Access” plan is $7,984, and Babson’s average meal plan costs $7,426. Various factors could contribute to Wellesley’s meal plan costing significantly more than similar plans at partner institutions. However, a key detail is that in addition to a high-cost, “unlimited” plan, these schools – unlike Wellesley – also offer cheaper meal plans that allow for more flexible dining options.
Further, MIT makes note that while they budget for the most expensive meal plan for financial aid purposes, they do not change the amount of financial aid in response to the student’s “actual expenses.” Thus, offering multiple meal plans should not affect Wellesley’s ability to determine financial aid packages. By expanding meal plan options, Wellesley would be able to make the $92,060 price tag more affordable for students.
Because of how the meal plan and housing are so closely tied, students that stay on campus during winter and summer breaks are required to pay a fee to cover the cost of meals during breaks. There is often no financial assistance in paying these fees, and nearly every student staying on campus is required to pay this, including financially-independent students and students who list Wellesley College as their permanent address.
Additionally, there is usually only one dining hall open during breaks with limited hours and options, and many students might not even go to the dining halls during these times. Because of the unlimited meal plan monopoly, the College is able to get away with charging students for housing during breaks under the guise of the meal plan, even if students might not have the financial means to pay for this.
Another issue that arises from the lack of flexibility in the meal plan is how people who need accommodations for dietary restrictions or allergies struggle to get off the meal plan. Students have reported difficulties getting off the meal plan even after providing medical documentation that Wellesley Fresh cannot meet their dietary needs. Accommodations to get off the meal plan are rarely granted, as students must provide several rounds of medical documentation, attend meetings with the on-campus dietitian, and possibly receive a referral from the Stone Center. This exhausting process traps students in a predicament where they are paying over ten thousand dollars for food they cannot even eat without getting sick.
Providing an unlimited option as the default plan for students appears to be in good faith: it ensures that students can eat enough throughout the semester without feeling burdened. However, the current system is also riddled with logistical issues, and in order for students to escape these issues, they must escape the meal plan entirely. For the most part, this can only be done by moving off campus, which is not realistic for every student.
Wellesley Fresh and Wellesley College need to work together to expand options for the meal plans. Instead of the current all-or-nothing system, there could be multiple options, including the current unlimited option, varying levels of a set number of meals per week, or simply allowing students to load Flex Points onto their OneCard. These expanded options would better reflect the various levels students want from the dining halls, including the students who eat at the dining halls for every meal to the students who might only stop by the Emporium a few times a semester.
Not only would the expanded options be more economical for students, but they would also help reduce food waste and improve the quality of meals. If students gravitate towards these newer options, the dining halls would have a more accurate headcount of how many students to expect for each meal, allowing them to prepare accordingly. The expanded options would also allow more students who live off campus to eat on campus, as expanded options would give them the flexibility to grab meals in between classes.
Contact the editor(s) responsible for this story: Caitlin Donovan
