It all seemed so simple in the beginning. Students who live in University housing are required to have a meal plan, and one swipe of their DukeCards allows them to partake in on-campus, and occasionally off-campus, dining. But as food points gradually diminish as the semester wears on, Duke students, the resourceful kids that they are, are forced to find ways to adjust.
Since October, “hordes” of students have begun flocking to the DukeCard Office in order to add funds to their food point accounts. Roland Gettliffe, the system administrator for the DukeCard Office, said year after year, the office becomes crowded early on with seemingly hungry students.
“Kids have been coming in to the office for months in order to add to their food points,” he said. “The last week of classes is when things get pretty crowded around here. By then, an enormous amount of students have always run out of money.”
Gettliffe said he believes students do not spend enough time at the beginning of the year making sure they choose the best meal plan for themselves. “Every visit kids make to the office is time and effort,” he said. “We wish that students would pay closer attention to their bursar accounts in the very beginning. They might save themselves a few trips.”
Students also find relief in the FLEX Account—known by some as the “luxury account”—which can also be used to purchase food at dining locations. When it comes to the relief of vending-machine shopping, however, this account is useless, much to the dismay of junk-food lovers across the University.
Students also have the option of using debit cards to buy their meals, but compared to the ease of swiping one’s DukeCard at mealtime, waiting for debit card receipts seems too taxing on a student’s limited time.
Freshmen appear to be most in need of relief from dwindling food points, as a high percentage ignore the meal plan offered them and spend their points at more attractive dining locations rather than the Marketplace. Students often favor ordering food from restaurants such as Grace’s Cafe, Jimmy John’s, Francesca’s Italian Cuisine and Grill and Cinelli’s Pizza. Freshman Daniel Freedman found out the hard way that neglecting the meal plan has its consequences, when he discovered he was scraping by on a meager amount of food points. “I now skip lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays in order to conserve points,” he said. “It’s really quite sad.”
Freshmen seem to fall into two categories: those who avoid the Marketplace at all costs and those who grin and bear it.
“The Marketplace is terrible. I try my best never to eat there,” confessed Matthew Contreras, a freshman member of the Duke track team. “I order takeout pretty much every day.”
As he usually eats two dinners each night, Contreras’ appetite has put him into a compromising position. “I ran out of food points before Parents’ Weekend, so I’ve been paying for everything in cash.” he said. “But the day I ran out of cash, I had to call my mom to transfer money into my savings account, immediately, because it was the only way I could buy myself lunch.”
But not all freshmen have found themselves struggling with their food point situations. Unlike many of her peers, freshman Brittany Lees has stuck by the meal plan at the Marketplace since the beginning of the year due to its convenience. “I don’t enjoy ordering food because it takes too long to be delivered, so I pretty much always go to the Marketplace for dinner,” she said. “I have a ridiculous amount of food points now and I have no idea what to do with them.”
Meal plans offered to upperclassmen provide greater amounts of food points, allowing these students to avoid the stress of finding alternate payment methods.
“I lost 15 pounds last year because I hated the Marketplace so much,” sophomore Tim Byrne said. “This year, I couldn’t conceivably spend the rest of my food points. I could go to the Washington Duke Inn every night and still have points left over.”
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