The meal plan at Colorado College is a topic that often elicits strong opinions from students. CC requires all students who live on campus to have one of two meal plans: the full or the apartment plan. Students on the full meal plan begin each semester with a starting balance of $3,018, while students living in apartments only begin with $596. Students’ views tend to vary on the topic.
“It would be nice if there were more veggie and fruit options,” said Francesca Thornton ‘28. “It’s nice that they do different cultural dishes at Benji’s.”
When asked specifically about the financial aspect of the meal plan, Thornton said, “It just seems like a lot of things are overpriced and just don’t add up to the amount we get.”
Toby Meyer ‘27 expressed disappointment with the meal plan.
“I think it’s pretty awful. I think that everything costs a lot more than it should. The variety is also not that great. If I could say ‘it’s shit,’ I would,” said Meyer.
Meyer does acknowledge the social advantages of the meal plan. “I understand for freshmen you go to these third spaces, you go to Rastall’s and […] that’s pretty good, but when you’re a sophomore or junior, even if you’re on campus, for some people it’s financially better and health-wise more beneficial to be exempt from it.”
Colorado College Student Government Association (CCSGA) is aware of some students’ concerns with the meal plan. Shanti Harrison ‘28, Vice President of Student Life, works closely with Bon Appétit, the third-party dining hall contractor that provides food to the school. “[CCSGA] wants to make a more complete meal plan that guarantees three meals a day and we are talking to Bon Appétit to find out why this isn’t currently the case,” she said.
In the meantime, CCSGA is pursuing several enhancements to the current meal plan, including an expanded gold card plus program and a Pass-a-Meal program that lets students donate meals at Rastall’s. In this program, students can double (or triple) tap their gold card and receive vouchers that they can give to students who are low on gold card money. These programs are designed to give students more flexibility in dining options.
Curtis Werner, general manager at Bon Appétit, said, “Students spend the funds as they wish on campus, and at the end of each week, Bon Appétit bills Colorado College for all the meal plan funds spent with us.’’
As for meal plan pricing last year, the Board of Trustees approved a 4% increase in food costs for the 2024–25 academic year, according to Werner. “This adjustment was based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) [for] Food Away From Home and the Employment Cost Index (ECI) [for] Wages & Salaries, Accommodation & Food Service as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” said Werner. “These indexes track the increase in food cost and labor expenses we experience annually due to market changes such as inflation.”
These price changes were accounted for in the given amount of credit on students’ gold cards, as students’ gold card balances increased to $3,018 for the semester, up from $2,876 last year. Polina Panasenko ‘28 assembled a spreadsheet calculating the prices of eating at Rastall’s three times a day and how it affects gold card balances.
According to Panasenko’s calculations, eating three meals a day at Rastall’s leaves students $125 short at the end of the block, assuming they stay on campus for block break as well. Excluding block break, students remain $25 short. Across the year, students are short $1,004 and $204, respectively.
While CCSGA has several ideas to address students’ concerns with the meal plan, Harrison encourages students to attend more meetings to get more information. Food advisory meetings happen on the second Thursday of every block, giving students a forum to express any distaste they may have for dining on campus. The meetings are hosted in Rastall’s and run from 3 to 4 p.m.