Meal Swipe Controversy at Rutgers

Rutgers University halted an initiative that allowed students to purchase take-out meals for needy local residents using meal card swipes by limiting the number of swipes students may use to only one per visit. Previously, the school allowed two swipes even if there was no guest physically present with the student.

The “Operation Robin Hood” donation program, initiated by a local actisist and Rutgers alumnus, Charles Kratovil, encouraged students to purchase a second meal when they bought a meal and donate it to a local soup kitchen. The program was ostensibly halted because of food safety concerns centering around the transport of the food to the soup kitchen, according to university officials, but the general understanding was that the initiative’s impact on the meal plan program economics was also a factor. Operation Robin Hood had resulted in about a hundred extra meal swipes over its two days of operation.