How Meal Plans Work—Punches and Dining Dollars

• Meal plans provide a certain number of meals per day/week/semester, which vary by plan.


• Dining Services provides 19 meal periods per week: breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday through Friday, and brunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday.


• D-Hall, E-Hall, Let’s Go and Mrs. Green’s accept meal plans on an all-you-care-to-eat basis. The cashier debits one meal from the number the student is allowed during that day/week/semester. This process is called “punching your JAC” or “taking a meal punch.” Meal punches are for the individual student only and cannot be used for guests at these locations.


• Festival, Market One, Madison Grill, Top Dog Cafe, PC Dukes and Corner Bistro also accept meal plans, but they have à la carte menus and extend a cash equivalency credit for each meal punch. Meal plan students can present their JACs to the cashier to receive a cash credit toward the cost of their purchases. If the price of the student’s selections exceeds the amount of the cash equivalency, the student pays the difference with cash, Dining Dollars, Dining Dollars GOLD or FLEX. No change is returned for transactions costing less than the cash equivalency amount.


• Students can use up to five meal punches in one day (with the exception of the Block 50 plan, which has no limit on the number of punches used per day).


• When students with meal plans providing a designated number of meals per week have used up all their meals, the computer will not admit them to more meals until the new meal plan week arrives at 12:01 a.m. Sunday. (Students who run out of meal punches can still eat by paying cash or using funds from a declining balance account.)


• All meal plans come with a certain number of Dining Dollars in addition to the specified number of meal punches.


• Dining Dollars are similar to Dining Dollars GOLD, except they are not purchased directly, but come as part of a meal plan; therefore, students do not receive a 5% discount on Dining Dollars purchases.


• Dining Dollars purchases are tax-exempt.


• Dining Dollars are not refundable and must be spent by the end of Spring semester or forfeited.


• Dining Dollars can be used to purchase food or beverages in any Dining Services location, to pay the extra when a purchase runs over the allowed equivalency amount, or to buy meals for guests.


• Dining Dollars are not limited in their use by meal periods.


• Dining Dollars are more convenient and more secure than carrying cash for these purposes.