The introduction of flexible meal plans has led to an increase in the number of students on meal plan and higher traffic at the Blue Room, according to Ann Hoffman, associate director of Brown Dining Services.
There are 4,420 students on meal plan this year, signifying a higher participation rate than in recent years, according to Hoffman. About 38 percent of those students are on one of the Flex Plans or the new plan for students living off campus, she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
"I consider (participation rate in the new plans) pretty high considering how new they are and anticipate that that percentage will grow over time," Hoffman wrote.
Flex Plans provide students with 460, 330 or 240 meals, half of which they can use as they please during each semester. The new plans also include more flex points and guest credits than the traditional meal plans.
Hoffman told The Herald this summer that she hoped the new options would appeal to students who would have otherwise dropped their meal plan.
Michelle Pautler '07, who is on the Flex 460 Plan, said she would have stayed on meal plan even if only traditional plans had been available but would have "complained about it daily."
Kara Zeder '07 is on the off-campus plan, which provides 25 meals and 250 flex points for use over the course of a semester and is only available to students living off campus. "I think they should have always had it," Zeder said, adding that she finds the new plan "super easy" to understand.
The new options have changed the way students eat on campus. Traffic is up significantly in the Blue Room, where meal credits are not accepted, Hoffman wrote. She attributed the change primarily to the increase in the number of flex points available on the new plans. Hoffman wrote that she did not know if student traffic at either the Sharpe Refectory or the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall had been affected. She also noted that sales at Josiah's and the Gate were both up, but this could be attributed to the increased value of a meal credit from $4.60 last year to $5.20 this year.
Anne Friedland '08 was eating lunch at the Blue Room with another friend on a Flex Plan last week. "We come here way more often," she said, adding that she also goes to the Ivy Room and Josiah's more frequently than before and "less to the Ratty."
"(I'm) kind of sick of (the Ratty)," she said.
Friedland added that, on the meal plan that provides 20 meals per week, she would not use all of her meal credits each day but would run out of flex points before the end of the semester. "It's a better plan," she said of her new Flex 460 Plan.
