THE STORY | Journalist

Taking the Magic out of Magic Meals

By Chloe Brussard

Q News

High Point University – Big changes were made to the High Point University campus during the 2020-2021 academic year due to the pandemic. One of those changes being the student meal plan.

Standard Swipes vs Magic Meals

There are four different kinds of meal plans that are offered to students at HPU. A plan that offers 19 standard board meals per week, 14 meals, 10 meals, and 7 meals, and they are all accompanied by seven magic meals.

There are two standard board meal options on campus,

the Café, and Farmers. The other standard meal options,

the Grille, and the Diner, are at off campus locations.

Magic meals can be used at eleven

different dining options on campus,

the most popular being Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A,

Butterfly Café, and the Prime Steakhouse.

But students only get seven magic meals for eleven different options.

Junior Brooke Ruffin said she “can’t really go there [Butterfly Café] throughout

the week because I’d run out of magic meals by Thursday.”

The students who don’t have access to a vehicle or have time to take

a shuttle are limited to the Café or Farmers if they run out of magic meals.

Why Students are Pushing for Change

“I literally wish that we had more magic meal options because I’m already out of them by, like, Wednesday or Thursday," said Brooke.

During the 2020-2021 academic year, the meal plan was changed so every single meal swipe was a magic meal. Students were able to go to a variety of dining locations without worrying about only having a very limited number of magic meal swipes.

“I used to eat really healthy and now I’m literally eating so terribly cause I’m choosing what is the fastest option, and that ends up being the worst option,” said sophomore Carly Dutch.

She commented on how her academics have taken a hit this year. Student centers like

Slane and Wanek are where HPU students go and do most of their work, both of them

having only one standard meal swipe dining option.

If students want to study while eating Chick-Fil-A, then they have to use a magic meal,

but if they run out of magic meals by Wednesday, then they have to go to standard

options, which not all students like.

Nutrition is important for academic performance. University students need to have beneficial food options readily available to them because, according to the Journal of American College Health, if not, it “can negatively impact cognitive function.”

Students at HPU believe that they spend valuable time studying their meal plan to see what they have available to eat when they could be studying for their academics.

Carly said, “it makes our lives so much easier because I know for me, I forget to eat, and then I have to go figure out a way to eat.” Not having more meal options around campus has caused students to miss meals.

The Other Side of the Story

Barry Kitley, Senior Vice President for University Relations said that last year “we [the HPU staff] were trying to respect the physical distancing rules recommended at the time.”

By making each meal a magic meal, students would be more spread out around different dining locations rather than all of them being at one of the few standard dining locations.

But students don’t know what is going on behind the scenes. “From a control mechanism, you have to be able to allot how much food to cook and how much it costs,” said Kitley.

Using the current meal plan, only giving students 7 magic meals

a week, the university can better manage how much food they

need to buy for magic meal dining locations instead of buying

in bulk and then wasting food.

The university hears the student and parent complaints, loud and clear.

They understand that “this [all magic meals] was going to be so popular”

and even the food service workers “warned” Kitley that it would be difficult

for students to go to the meal plan that the university originally had in place.

This change back to including standard meal swipes in the meal plan has affected all students, but is most contested by the sophomore class, who were all freshman last year and have only experienced a magic-meal-only dining service.

As well as it worked out for students, there will always be problems for university staff behind the scenes. “It’s growing pains,” said Kitley about the complaints received.

But the university is determined not to let this interfere with student experiences on campus.

How this situation between the students and the university will work out, well that remains unresolved. Will the university stand their ground, or will the students win this battle and take back their magic meals?