The meal plans at Florida Tech aren’t just for feeding the students, they’re for feeding the university too.
According to recent data, many meal plans don’t benefit the student body as much as the university that hosts them. Much of the money goes unspent by students and returns to the university at large, instead of back to dining services or to those in need.
All students who use on-campus housing at Florida Tech are required to purchase a special meal plan each semester. These plans range from $1,775 – $2,940 and are used at on-campus locations such as the Panther Dining Hall and SUB café. The plans are split between an unlimited meals option for specific hours and food only FLEX dollars depending on which plan is purchased.
Unlike the unlimited dining option, which is only applicable at the dining hall, FLEX dollars are accepted at all food options on campus such as the Rathskeller and even the campus vending machines.
Tom Stewart, Director of Dining Services arrived at the university in 1994 and has witnessed the evolution of the university’s meal plans, including its first iteration. “You had three meals a day. If you missed breakfast, you missed a meal,” Stewart said. “You didn’t get to save that meal and get it later.”
The university moved from its three meals a day plan to a block plan where students purchased between 185 – 200 meals each semester, before settling on its current iteration.
This flexibility, pun intended, is an attractive option for students since they are not forced to eat at a single location or at listed hours. They can choose what to eat and where. The FLEX dollars are also the primary means of purchasing fresh produce from the university’s market. With deliveries to the market every Thursday morning, students have ample opportunity to eat a healthy meal outside of the main cafeteria. This freedom is cited by campus administration as one of the primary factors for the creation of the school’s FLEX dollar program.
However, that’s not always the case. More often than not, students are unable or unwilling to spend the entirety of their FLEX amount. In most situations, a student is unable to break even on the amount spent to purchase the required meal plan in the first place.
Per Florida Tech’s 2018 Room and Board Rates pamphlet, the A1 level meal plan which includes unlimited meals every day of the week and $300 in FLEX credit, costs $2,940. That would require a student to eat approximately 3.32 meals at the cafeteria every day of the 118-day semester. This assumes they eat on weekends, all holiday breaks such as spring break or Christmas, and during the entire last week of final exams.
According to students, this is not a realistic expectation. Many students do not utilize the university’s dining services enough to justify the price they are required to pay. This is due to numerous factors including class schedules, dietary restrictions and disillusionment at the food being offered. The fish fillets drenched in sauce were particularly maligned by students.
Whether by intent or design, these unspent meal plan funds have become a boon to Florida Tech’s coffers. All FLEX dollars expire at the end of every academic year. The money is not directed back to campus services and the meal options, but to the general campus fund used for expenses such as construction or staff salaries.
Remember, a student who lives on campus is required to purchase one of these meal plans every semester. This means the student must purchase a minimum of $5,325 worth of meal plans in an academic year in order to live on campus. This is on top of the cost of housing which ranges from $2,600 to $4,775 each semester depending on the assigned dormitory. At its cheapest, a student will be charged tuition plus $13,125 each year for the privilege of attending Florida Tech. This cost can go as high as $23,145.
Data gathered at the second to last week of the semester showed that most students with FLEX had several hundred dollars remaining. One student had more than $2,400 of FLEX funds he was required to purchase still unspent. During a four-hour period on April 22, 46 students entering the cafeteria had $17,932.82 of FLEX remaining. This entire amount expires for the students and returns to the university the weekend after final exams, May 5.
Nearby businesses such as Old School Pizza and a new Dunkin Donuts outlet located adjacent to Florida Tech’s Mary Star of the Sea apartments, as well as local charities, have reached out to Florida Tech in the past for permission to allow students to use their FLEX dollars and make use of the unspent funds. Thus far, every request has been met with refusal or outright silence from the university.
In rare cases, individual students have stepped up to fill this void and use their unspent funds to help those in need. According to Jason Caraballo of the South Brevard Sharing Center (SBSC), the unspent funds of a single student have helped dozens of families.
“For the second year in a row [a student] has donated $1200 or more in food from the commissary at Florida Tech. He’s helped us tremendously with his donations and kindness,” Caraballo said. “98 percent of all donations goes back to the community. So, we have very little overhead.”
According to Caraballo and other staff at the SBSC, only that one student has ever used their remaining funds to purchase food for donations. The $1,250 worth of goods donated by the student was desperately needed. The SBSC has a monthly budget of only $1,000 to provide food and clothing to the approximately 200 households in need that visit each week.
“It would be awesome if at the end of the students’ semester they can donate that food and they could put that food back into the community,” Caraballo said. “There’s a big need for food and housing in this community right here. If they [Florida Tech] can get the students that have it [remaining FLEX] together and donate it back into the community… it would be awesome.”
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For something a little different, but directly related, take a look here > A Good News Story