The True Cost of Your Meal Plan, by Stas Nogay and Adam Lewis

The True Cost of Your Meal Plan
Hello Denison,
Have you ever wondered what the meal plans cost per meal? We have, and after some research, and a bit of math, we have come up with a nearly complete breakdown of the real costs associated with eating in the dining halls. We wish someone had provided us with a nice breakdown of the price of the mandatory Denison meal plans, so as a service to every Denison student during our senior year, here is a fairly in-depth analysis of each of the meal plans. We realize you may not care much for the calculations or methodology, so we attempted to put in bold all of the important parts.
Before we get into our analysis, note that we tried our best to assume the most conservative, best-case scenario for all the prices involved. That is, we assume that for your meal plan, you eat the costliest meals, and use all of your meals up, and stay until the final day of the semester. Thus, your actual meal plan value may well be less than our calculations, and you will probably lose more money from not using up all of your meals. Also, keep in mind that flex dollars only work at Denison, and the prices in Slayter and elsewhere tend to be higher than off the hill. Therefore, flex dollars’ actual value is lower. You could buy a great deal more with $100 at K-Mart than you could with $100 flex in Slayter.
These calculations are for one semester (the duration of each meal plan), and do exclude the few special meals the dining halls serve each semester, which only amount to an additional dollar or so over normal meals served during the same time. All of the information regarding prices and services was acquired from either the dining services web page, or the food services office in Curtis West. The meal plans were extrapolated over 15 weeks of 7 days/week plus one day, which is the total duration of this semester during which meals are served in the dining halls down to the day. Flex dollars were subtracted from the total cost of each plan so that we can accurately present you with the average cost per meal for each plan.
First, here is the cost of each meal if you go into a dining hall and pay with Denison Dollars, which is actually the cheapest method of payment, cheaper than using cash, and the amount which we will use as the base "value" of each meal:
Meal 2009/2010 Denison Dollars Price
Continental Breakfast $3.02
Breakfast $3.95
Lunch/Brunch $6.03
Dinner $7.24
Steak/Special Dinner $8.72
Now that you have that info at hand, here is a breakdown of the relative cost of each meal plan:
Plan A: Unlimited.
Assuming that you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week, your value is:
5 breakfasts @ $3.95 + 5 lunches @ $6.03 + 7 dinners @ $7.24 + 2 brunches @ $6.03 = $112.64

$112.64 x 15 weeks + $3.02 for last meal of year = $1692.62 for 286 meals, an average value of $5.91 per meal. Plan A, however, costs $2060.00, with no flex dollars. You are charged an average of $7.20 per meal.
Plan B: 14 meals/week + $135 flex.
Assuming that you eat lunch and dinner every day of the week, your value is:
5 lunches @ $6.03 + 7 dinners @ $7.24 + 2 brunches @ $6.03 = $92.84
$92.84 x 15 weeks + $3.02 for last meal of year = $1362.60 for 210 meals, an average value of $6.63 per meal. Plan B costs $1945.00, with $135.00 flex dollars. After deducting for flex dollars, you are charged an average of $8.61 per meal.
Plan C: 10 meals/week + $250 flex.
Assuming that you eat lunch and dinner every weekday, your value is:
5 lunches @ $6.03 + 5 dinners @ $7.24 = $66.35
$66.35 x 15 weeks + $3.02 for last meal of year = $995.25 for 150 meals, an average value of $6.64 per meal. Plan C costs $1825.00, with $250.00 flex dollars. After deducting for flex dollars, you are charged an average of $10.50 per meal.
That sums up all of the mandatory meal plans for freshmen through juniors. We also did the work for the senior apartment meal plans, and here is how those numbers pan out:
Apartment Plan 1: 100 block meals + $350 flex.
Assuming 100 dinners @ $7.24 = $724.00 for the semester, an average value of $7.24 per meal.
Apartment Plan 1 costs $1185.00, with $350 flex. After deducting for flex dollars, you are charged an average of $8.35 per meal.
Apartment Plan 2: 70 block meals + $400 flex.
Assuming 70 dinners @ $7.24 = $506.80 for the semester, an average of $7.24 per meal.
Apartment Plan 2 costs $1025.00, with $400. After deducting for flex dollars, you are charged an average of $8.93 per meal.
Apartment Plan 3: 5 meals/week + $50 flex.
Assuming 5 dinners/week @ $7.24 x 15 weeks = $543.00 for the semester, an average of $7.24 per meal.
Apartment Plan 3 costs $700.00, with $50 flex. After deducting for flex dollars, you are charged an average of $8.67 per meal.
For seniors on these plans, it is cheaper to pay with Denison Dollars, or even cash, than to be on the meal plan.
Additionally, anyone on any plan may purchase extra meals on blocks of 25 for $53.75, or $2.15 a meal. These meals are only used after you expend your weekly allowance, but carry over from fall to spring semester. All of this data is accurate to the best of our knowledge and ability, and has led us to recommend the following:
To anyone on plans A through C:
1. You are getting shafted pretty hard and losing a few hundred bucks of value to the meal plan, without much choice about it.
2. Consider switching to plan C, and buying block meals, or using Denison Dollars for the few extra meals you need. This will give you more value for you money.
3. It would be cheaper for your parents to stop in every day and eat here than for you to.
4. Stay and eat all of your meals if at all possible, and if it doesn’t drive you nuts. When you go out to eat, not only are you paying extra to eat out, you are forfeiting the $5-10 invested in your meal via the meal plan.
5. Flex dollars have half the purchasing power of an actual dollar at Wal-Mart.
To any senior:
1. GET OFF THE MEAL PLAN! YOU ARE WASTING MONEY.
2. Read #1 above.
3. Seriously, transfer your meal plan money to Denison Dollars, and pay with that at each meal. You’ll probably save over $100, and Denison Dollars don’t disappear at the end of the semester.
You have until Sept. 11 to change your meal plan. The short trip to Doane can save you a lot of money.
We hope you find this information helpful,
Stas Nogay and Adam Lewis, Class of 2010, Slayter Box #8282, and #8616, respectively.