Purdue students struggle with meal plan changes

In nearly 90-degree heat, a line stretched from one end of Krach lawn to the other. Purdue students who couldn’t beat the 12:30 p.m. lunch rush were waiting to eat their Monday lunch.

Freshmen Jordan Mark and Emma Bergner were initially hesitant to join and wait in line, but they decided to anyways.

“I didn’t think it would be this bad,” Mark said.

Bergner and Mark said it was difficult to manage their 14-track and 10-track meal plans, respectively, under the current wait times.

“I think I might go down,” Bergner said. “The 14-track is definitely enough, but you don’t want to eat at the dining hall and wait in this line every single day. So I might go down to the 10.”

“Food can be hard for me sometimes,” Mark said. “Finding times and places where it’s convenient to eat in between classes, especially when you only have an hour break, is definitely something that’s a challenge. This doesn’t help.”

Standing at the end of the line, sophomore Andrew Campbell described a similar experience.

“The first week’s always bad,” Campbell said. “At Wiley, especially. However, I don’t think it ever got quite this long. I’d say it’s probably worse than usual.”

Lines at the beginning of the school are typically long, Purdue Dining & Culinary claimed in an Instagram reel published two weeks ago, but they tend to shorten within the first few weeks of school.

“As students settle into more spread-out class schedules and activity times, the lines will dwindle and you’ll be able to enter the dining courts in mere minutes,” the reel said.

But Campbell said he didn’t think the conditions of the lines would improve.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that I have to use my swipes, I’d probably be somewhere else right now,” he said.

“Purdue Dining is now serving 20% more meals week over week compared to last year, reflecting the strong demand for dining services,” said Purdue spokesperson Trevor Peters.

Putting more stress on the dining halls, all on-campus retail locations no longer accept meal swipes as a form of payment.

Frieda’s Chick-fil-A Front of House Director and Purdue senior Isabella Hutcheson said the change has been good for their sales.

“If you look actually,” Hutcheson said, gesturing to the line of people waiting behind her, “our line still reaches the very end here.”

Hutcheson said that meal swipes last year were priced at $8.75, which meant that Chic-Fil-A was barely breaking even. Now, the average meal cost is $10.57.

“I understand it from a business perspective,” she said.

In addition to the long wait times, the limited availability of commuter meal plans has presented challenges for some students.

Sophomore Jacob Nickel lives off campus and said he empathized with students who needed a meal plan but were unable to obtain one.

“The ability to purchase a meal plan for commuter students is now closed as allotted plans have sold out,” according to Purdue Dining’s website. “Purdue provides a limited number of available plans to commuter students every semester.”

Students living off-campus who were unable to purchase meal plans containing swipes still can purchase plans that can be used in Purdue Food Co.’s many retail locations, according to Peters.

“Purdue has always prioritized dining courts for students who live in university residence halls,” Peters said. “This year, commuter meal plans were capped to help manage demand and ensure dining services can meet the needs of our students living in residence halls.”

Nickel said that more options should be accessible for students regardless of where they live.

“I think it’s weird that Purdue would limit that option for off-campus students,” Nickel said. “I am sure there are many kids who rely on that service to get food for themselves.”