The modern meal plan

Though the phrase “meal plan” may bring to mind cafeteria trays and buffet lines, it's not just for college kids anymore. But what constitutes a meal plan—or even a meal, in itself—is evolving. “I’m not sure what a ‘meal’ is anymore. There is so much variability in how our operations are used by staff,” says Julie Jones, director of nutrition services at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, which self-operates 10 cafes ranging from grab-and-go stations to full-service bistros on the Columbus, Ohio, campus.

“We are a full-meal option, [or] we are a supplement to what [hospital staff] bring from home; this is pretty large in our segment,” Jones says. Without much vending available, employees rely on foodservice for individual beverages and snacks; otherwise, they buy food in quantity to bring back for colleagues in their work areas or to tote family-style portions home after their shift. Operators in other segments also are seeing shifts in dining habits.

With those variables in mind, we asked foodservice directors to take stock of how the demands of today’s diners are shaping the meal plan of the future, from data-syncing mobile technology to discounts for healthy dishes.

Inspiration, not expiration

Use-it-or-lose-it meal plans and dining dollars that expire at the end of a day, week, month or semester help C&U operators manage volume, but feedback from students and parents is changing that on some campuses.

Miami University of Ohio’s new dining plan features a semester-long meal count combined with dollars that roll over year to year, says Brian Woodruff, director of housing options, meals and events at the Oxford, Ohio, school. “Those buffet meals are not limited to a day or a week, even—it’s for the whole semester,” Woodruff says. “You could eat six meals one day and no meals the next day. In our declining balance, we think it’s important to let any money not spent roll over from year to year. … Parents put that money on [their plans] for food and it should be used for that.”

Besides rollover, sharing is a growing option for unused meals. At the end of each quarter at University of California Los Angeles, students can donate unused meals through Swipes for the Homeless, a student-run organization that partners with foodservice to deliver meals to nearby homeless shelters. “[Students] are really assertive about making sure all their swipes are used,” says Al Ferroni, senior director of food and beverage, adding that between their own meals and donations, students use 90 percent of available meals every quarter.

At Miami, meal plan pricing is based on the assumption that a certain percentage of buffet meals will go unused. “Truthfully, [that’s] part of how we’ve been able to price our plans a bit lower," says Woodruff. "We’ve worked closely with benchmarking … to understand what’s the percentage used and … we base the pricing on that. If students were sharing, then that would likely mean the price would go up.” Though he recalls a request from one student interested in donating meals, Woodruff says the demand hasn’t been great enough to consider a price increase.

The cost-benefit quotient

With corporate meal plans, a more holistic view of employee well-being is becoming a larger driver of payment and pricing arrangements, says Allynn Pattison, director of dining services for Food For Thought, which operates foodservice for higher education and corporate accounts. “The health and wellness piece to it is becoming so much more a part of what [corporate leadership] is looking to do,” he says. “Because if they can subsidize a meal plan, it’s one thing, but if they can focus the subsidy onto the healthier portion of what’s served … overall healthcare costs can be reduced.”

It’s not just about the bottom line, but also a well-fed, productive workforce, Pattison says. Pairing a declining balance option with discounts for healthy menu items can incentivize employees to enroll in the meal plan instead of paying cash, and also encourage them to choose nutritionally dense foods that will keep brains and bodies fueled throughout the workday.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois is one company looking to do just that in the future. “[Being a healthcare company,] obviously everything is about promoting health and wellness,” says Parker Millard, former director of operations with Flik, which manages foodservice at the BCBS Chicago headquarters. Millard hoped to move to a cashless system with a debit function or payroll deduction that includes discounts on healthy menu choices. “If you are part of this specific plan, we’re going to offer you [for example] 20 percent off of the salad bar, fresh-pressed juices, all of the produce we offer.” The foodservice department would share responsibility for marketing the discounts through signage or other company communication, such as e-newsletters.

Offering discounted meal plans to staff isn’t a new practice at hospitals, says Dan Henroid, director of nutrition and food services at University of California San Francisco Medical Center; however, facilities that offer them are starting to diverge. “In healthcare, we’re seeing one of two things happening to discounts. Either they’re 100 percent going away ... as a cost-cutting measure, or others are using them as a competitive advantage.”

UCSF Medical Center falls into the second camp, offering up to $11 per day in meal credits, which Henroid says he uses as a recruiting tool for his own hires. “Even my dietitians are unionized. I’m locked in on wage relative to experience and other steps … so we’re trying to use [meal credits] as a better way to compete for talent,” he says. “We just tell employees, do the math. That’s money in your pocket that you know isn’t being taxed because it’s in-kind. Whereas other places are looking at [providing a meal plan] as expensive, it’s a cost of doing business to recruit for talent in our marketplace.”

The more-is-more backlash

As college students and their parents called for more options and flexibility, higher-ed meal plans became increasingly more complex. “I’ve seen them so complicated that you can barely understand [them],” Pattison says. “There’s a certain number of dining bucks per year, guaranteed meals, broken up by season.” At a certain point, it’s too much to navigate, he says.

As a result, Pattison predicts diners will be looking for simplicity, putting the pressure on operators to offer both flexibility and clarity at once. “Nowadays, it’s about being simpler and more efficient, [as well as having] service points that can evolve to support variety and change,” he says.

The more-is-more trend toward unlimited, anytime meal plans also has unintentionally left some students out of the loop. “Unlimited meal plans are a great program … but it really targets your residential students and not as much your commuter students,” says Bryan Varin, interim executive director at University of Georgia Food Services in Athens, Ga. In response to requests for a lunch-only option, Varin’s department added a meal plan targeting commuters with fewer meals usable at any time of day, whether at lunchtime or after a late-night study group.

Incorporating technology

Many foodservice facilities already have gone cashless, but the next trend, insiders say, will be integrating data that is important to both the operator and the diner. New technologies are hitting the market that integrate a pay-by-phone function with data-sync for wellness apps such as MyFitnessPal or wearable devices such as FitBit.

“MyFitnessPal would register what they’ve eaten, track their calories, let them know how many steps it would take to work off that many calories,” Pattison says. “That sort of flexibility and convenience is only going to get easier and more available. I think back to when I first remember seeing a meal plan card, and it was a barcode on a card with a number on it. … Just like online banking, now it’s all in one place [on your smartphone].” 

Operations with heavy traffic during short time frames also may look to meal-ordering and payment technology to cut down on wait times. At the BCBS Chicago headquarters, employees start work at 7:30 a.m., and many want to buy breakfast after their morning workout or commute. “I am trying to source different technologies that will allow a guest to order their meal from home or their office on their phone completely remotely and come in and it’d be ready and prepared for them,” Millard says. “I think that’s the ultimate goal, that it gives this sense of power and efficiency and sense of ease for the customer to say, ‘I can know it will be ready when I want it, and it will be settled financially.’”

Similarly, Jones sees convenience driving foodservice participation at Wexner Medical Center, where 7,500 employees have enrolled in a cashless payment program for meals that can be funded through payroll deduction. “I see us operating pickup or delivery programs,” she says. “Healthcare workers are very time-strapped.”

Don't call it a meal plan

One place where you won’t hear the words “meal plan” uttered often is in senior living, where operators continue to avoid anything that reminds their residents of a cafeteria. Building meal costs into overall residential dues is expected to continue as the norm, though what’s included in that may evolve, operators told us.

At Autumn Leaves, which has 40 communities nationwide and is adding eight more throughout 2016 and 2017, residents receive three meals a day plus refreshments. Rather than adopt the popular practice of offering a set number of guest meals per month, residents’ family members visiting during mealtimes also can dine for free, with no limit—which also is factored into overall dues. “We do it because it’s a home feel. We’re welcoming them into their home,” says Ronald Virgilio, corporate chef. “It’s not just about protocol, it’s about being a community.”

For other communities that have added more casual cafes with lighter options as an alternative to the main dining room, determining what counts as a meal is a challenge. “It was a point of contention with our residents when they were being charged $12 [for a full meal] and all they had was a cup of soup,” says Jeff Graves, senior vice president of food operations at Belmont Village Corporation, which has 25 locations in U.S. major cities.

To avoid making residents feel like they’re being nickeled and dimed, Belmont charges those who order a full sandwich, drink and side dish at the cafe for a full meal, but they no longer charge for a single snack, drink or cup of soup, Graves says. “We decided that for the frustration, it really wasn’t worth it. … Foodservice is not a profit center [for us],” he says. He adds that he hasn’t seen the system being abused, and the switch has improved resident satisfaction.