Many freshmen on the Flex plan say they are unaware they are spending more than twice as much per meal at Willie’s Food Court than students paying cash or using Bonus Bucks.
Students can use a Flex plan meal equivalency at Willie’s to buy $6.60 worth of food. But students could be paying as much as $13.62 per meal.
“The Flex plan does not necessarily provide you with the best meal value,” Assoc. Director of University Housing Mark D’Arienzo said.
Students on a 13-meal-per-week Flex plan pay $3,067 for a year of meal service. Students have two options under that plan. Those who receive $684 in Bonus Bucks also get 175 meals. Subtracting the Bonus Bucks from the $3,067 total cost leaves students paying $2,383 for 175 meals, or $13.62 per meal.
The yearlong meal plan prices increased 5.5 percent from last year, but D’Arienzo said prices increase every year by 4 percent to 6 percent because of inflation. This means that students always have paid more than actual meal costs since the introduction of the Flex plan in 1998.
But many students, especially freshmen, are unaware this discrepancy exists.
“I already knew that they ripped me off on books and housing,” Weinberg sophomore Ajay Tejwani said. “Now I find out that they rip me off on food. What’s next?”
D’Arienzo also said that a student who pays $3,421 this year for a 19-meal traditional plan will receive 19 meals per week at campus dining halls, but a student paying the same price for a 19-meal Flex plan will get 8 to 10 meals per week.
Dana Levit, assistant director of Northwestern’s food service, said food service at Norris University Center comes at a higher premium because food is individually prepared and packaged and because Norris is conveniently located for students.
“It’s up to the students to decide which meal plan works for them,” Levit said.
NU publishes information on its meal plans and advises in its dining brochure that “the Flex plans are suited for students on the go who eat sporadically throughout the day and prefer only one or two traditional meals per day.”
Sarah Warning and Lacey Langguth, both Weinberg freshmen, paid for their food Monday afternoon at Willie’s with Bonus Bucks, but Warning is on the traditional meal plan and Langguth uses the Flex plan.
Warning said she chose the traditional plan because the Flex plan “came out to less food for your money.”
Langguth did not know that she would have lost $7.42 if she spent a meal equivalency on her $6.20 meal. She said she chose the Flex plan because she didn’t think she would eat 13 meals a week.
Weinberg sophomore Iida Covington transferred to NU from the University of Wisconsin but didn’t buy a meal plan from the university.
“I wouldn’t pay $13 for any meal plan,” she said.
Covington said dining halls at Wisconsin resembled Norris’ format and students used university debit cards to buy food, groceries and order pizza from university food services.
D’Arienzo said the Flex plan doesn’t have a set number of meals per week. For example, students pay $3,262 for 16 meals on the traditional program. The Flex plan that also costs $3,262 is referred to as the 16-meal plan, but students can use their meals and Bonus Bucks however they choose.
“It always seemed to work out,” Speech sophomore Chris VanIson said. “I would have zero (meals and Bonus Bucks) by the end.”
Speech freshman Laura Weinstein eats the majority of her meals at Norris and wants to switch to the Flex plan but said she wasn’t so sure once she found out the cost.
“In the end it’s probably cheaper to just pay cash for meals then to switch to the Flex plan,” she said.
