Staff Writer- Evangelyn Hill
Photo credits: Anyah Moffett
Last Monday, the Student Senate held what is likely one of their longest community comment Q and A sessions. The purpose? To hear President Volin and Chief of Staff Katie Bishop talk about the changes to the campus meal system.
Senate members and regular students alike packed a large Beck classroom, even sitting and standing in the corners of the room. The question-and-answer session took the better part of 90 minutes.
While questions still remain, the Senate session and President Volin’s email announcement have clarified a lot of the rumors that had been circulating.
While the plan is still pending board approval, Volin plans to transition the school from its current à la carte meal system (in which you use dining dollars to pay for the exact food you buy) to the more widely used all-you-care-to-eat meal swipe system (which allows you to take as much or as little food each time you use a meal “swipe”).
Gustavus will still stand out from other colleges who use this system, however. Volin plans to create a hybrid system, which would allot students “flex dollars” to use at the grab-and-go section, the Steamery, and the Courtyard Café, as well as a certain number of meal swipes per day. The two cafes will also expand their options to include “meal equivalents,” or items (ie. a sandwich and soup) that you can use a meal swipe to purchase, according to Volin.
The goal of the new system is to decrease food insecurity on campus. Last year, Volin conducted an entry survey of freshman students with an 86% response rate (a very high rate). At the Senate meeting.
“It turns out, of our entering class last year, 11% of our students were saying they were food insecure,” Volin explained.
The goal is to make sure “no Gustavus student should feel they need to skip a meal or eat less because they are worried about having enough dining dollars to make it through the semester,” Volin wrote in his email announcement last Friday.
He also pointed to survey data that indicated around 75% of Gustavus students are dissatisfied with the current dining system as another reason that change is needed.
Steve Kjellgren, the Associate Vice President for Dining Services, helped to create the current meal system and has some inside knowledge of how the new system will work. He suggests that the food quality will not decrease (which was also corroborated by Volin during the Senate meeting), as we are retaining our in-house dining staff and cooks instead of switching to a caterer.
However, Kjellgren said variety may decrease. “When you move to a system like that, it probably also means that there might not be able to be twelve different options at the grill every day,” he said, “because it’s all you can eat, we have to reduce the number of things we have so we can manage it better. So the quality is not going to go down, but necessarily there will be fewer options.”
Volin and Kjellgren also made it clear that visitors and students not on the meal plan will still be able to enter the dining area and even buy food from the marketplace (something which most colleges don’t allow).
Some students are quite excited about this new plan. One student on the anonymous social media platform YikYak commented that they end up going about $150 over their meal plan every month, something that the new plan aims to solve. Other students echoed this commenter, saying they’re “looking forward to a swipe system.”
However, the majority of students commenting on YikYak, both after Volin’s announcement and after the Senate session, were negative about the new plan.
Their concerns were echoed by topics discussed during that Q and A session, including the cost of the new program. No pricing information has been released yet, and it seems the college is still unsure of how much the new meal plans will cost.
Bishop, in response to a student question about pricing, said that the college is putting significant thought into the pricing for the new plan, mainly by finding out how much the average student actually spends on food, since “most students actually spend more than their monthly [allowance].”
The new default meal plan will be based on the amount of money that the average student actually spends. “We have to peg the regular, most normal plan to that amount and not increase it,” Bishop said, “Besides for the normal inflationary costs in food.”
Kjellgren is also hopeful about the pricing for the new plan. “I don’t think [cost] will change significantly. We’re still in the formative stage here, but the intent would be: here’s a base plan that’s similar in price to what we currently have, and here’s an option that’s a base plus, and a base minus… I don’t see the financial impact at all.”
However, many students are worried about the financial impact of the new meal plan. Ethan LaLumiere, a former Student Senate member, shared financial data from another Senate member about other Minnesota private colleges’ meal plan costs. Gustavus ranked the fourth lowest-cost.
He worries that, when Gustavus switches to the same meal plan as other MN colleges, our meal plan cost will rise.
“I’m still concerned about the cost to students since they weren’t able to give us numbers yet,” LaLumiere said.
Student Senate members had many other questions for Volin and Bishop, chief among them a concern that the new system won’t actually improve the situation of food insecure students.
Senator Sset “Adria” Zermeño told the Senate that “as a student that is in the 75% of dissatisfied students, it just goes down to the price of everything.” She pointed out that, under the new system, “unless I’m eating the same as the average student at Gustavus, I’m covering the other students.”
As someone who has experienced food insecurity herself, Zermeño has a unique perspective on what is actually helpful. Zermeño pointed to the free community lunch last year and the Gustie Pantry as examples of what actually helped her.
The new plan, Zermeño said, won’t actually help food insecure students like her. “If the main point is food insecurity, this is going to be worse for me, unless I eat more than others,” Zermeño said. “How can you tell me this will help me? How does this system help me if the biggest thing is price, and this plan is more expensive and restrictive on plans?”
Volin responded by saying “I think we know that all-you-care-to-eat models are more equitable.” Under the current plan, he says, too many students feel pressured to skip meals. He also pointed out that students not on the meal plan will still be able to pay à la carte for food.
To another student concerned about the same thing, Volin said, “You’ll have 2 swipes a day if you choose that [meal plan level], and it’s all you can eat during the time you’re there… There will be two times during the day when you won’t be limited on the amount of food you get.”
Despite Volin’s reassurances, Senator Eric Hofer is still worried about whether the plan will solve food insecurity.
“I’m glad to hear that there will be several different tiers as was the case with the à la carte system, however, I believe that students who are truly food insecure will end up opting for the lowest options, which will result in the same situation that we’re currently in,” Hofer commented.
Senator Jonathan Ryan brought up another question to President Volin. Ryan was approached by worried constituents with medical concerns and dietary restrictions, such as having to eat smaller, more frequent meals, or eat at unusual times when (under the new plan) the cafeteria may be closed.
Volin suggested those students turn to Accessibility Services for solutions. He also said that the conversations around the revamp of the meal system have included suggestions for improving options for gluten-free or dairy-free students.
“Let’s be honest, our options are not great for gluten free, dairy free, or during different religious holidays… we’re looking at how we can diversify for some of the options we don’t currently offer,” Volin said.
A student on YikYak, argued that for them, the new system will give them much less value for their money. “For me I currently have the lowest plan because that’s all I need. I go to the Cafe 3-4 times a day but I only get small portions. Now will I have to pay for a bigger plan just so I can eat the same amount of food?”
Multiple senators were concerned that the new plan might increase the amount of food wasted, even though the President suggested it would in fact decrease. Volin clarified that the main factor in decreasing food waste will be eliminating trays in the cafeteria and potentially providing smaller plates so that students take less food. Students will be able to return and fill up their plates again during a period of time after they swiped their meal card, so students with larger appetites need not worry.
Volin explained that with a system like this “the evidence shows that food waste goes down dramatically. The other thing that you try to do – it’s not a big issue here because we’re a smaller community – but you can make sure of the food you’re planning for – because you can plan out better… These types of models always reduce food waste.”
Kari Wallin, Director of Sustainability at Gustavus, had a somewhat different perspective, though she agrees with Volin that eliminating trays can help decrease food waste. However, speaking on the à la carte system, she said, “It’s one of the least waste generating food systems compared to other schools that are doing all you can eat or other types, just because the portions are theoretically more controlled, and you have more control over what you get.”
Wallin praised the efficiency of the current system’s food waste management – we send the majority of our food waste to the Mdewakanton Sioux composting facility, which is owned by the tribal nation, and uses the resulting compost on Big Hill Farm and for campus flower beds.
Wallin and the rest of the sustainability team are concerned that the food waste will increase.
“There’s quite a bit of data from other schools that shows that à la carte tends to perform better than all you can eat… The good news is that we’re composting it all… the president kind of reaffirmed his commitment to zero waste… so the good news is that it won’t impact that a lot, it’ll just impact our numbers overall, to be generating more, which is obviously not ideal,” Wallin said.
The final concern Senate members had was that the decision process for the new meal system did not involve student input.
Prior to Volin’s announcing the new plan, Hofer had an inside picture of what the Senate understood about the plan.
“So, right now the details are very murky, none of us know much of anything that’s going on, including the staff, who found out later than we did… I think there is only one person in the cabinet who is for the change… like out of twelve,” Hofer said.
After the Senate question and answer session, Hofer said, “As a whole, my biggest concern is that student voices aren’t being properly heard– it felt as if many of the questions and concerns that were posed were not properly answered and that many of the members of the community left with a negative taste in their mouth.”
LaLumiere was on the President’s Environmental Sustainability Committee (PESC), and Student Senate last year and says his committees heard nothing about the proposed plan.
“I don’t like that this quickly became a non-negotiable that PESC and Senate never once talked about, it feels like a lot of stakeholders weren’t given a choice. They should be consulting students, faculty, and staff instead of just forcing that this change is going to happen regardless of how everyone feels about it,” LaLumiere said.