In the past, dining at a university was perceived as a basic necessity rather than an experience. However, in recent years, food culture has been widespread among all sections of society. This trend of activities and lifestyles designed around food consumption has created online communities. These communities frequently participate in the online sharing of food-related topics. So let’s know about How Much Is The Meal Plan At The University of Tennessee?
The University of Tennesse has several meal plans available for the students. These plans include unlimited meal plans, 5-day meal plans, and 7-day meal plans. These plans give students the flexibility they seek with their dining experience at the campus. However, the information may seem overwhelming to freshmen.
Meal Plan At University Of Tennessee
Gen-Z has grown up with exposure to such food-oriented hobbies and lifestyles. Their relation with food has a different meaning to what it was with previous generations, excluding the Millenials who introduced it to the mainstream culture. With that in mind, Gen-Z is preparing to get into colleges and apart from a few traditional considerations, they are looking at other things. The most important is the on-campus dining experience.
In layman’s terms, when you enter the university, you pay somewhere around a $2k ballpark figure for the unlimited meal plan. But, if you are wondering about the different meal plans available beyond the first semester so you may make an informed decision, here is a breakdown of what you should expect.
7-day Meal
This is a mandatory plan required for a freshman. This plan consists of 500 dining dollars and a maximum of five guest swipes. It also includes all-day cafeteria access, with unlimited meals in Presidential Court Building Cafetaria, Fresh Food Company, and Southern Kitchen. You may eat at your heart’s will with this plan.
Specific Meals Per-Week Plan
After your first semester, you have more freedom to choose from for your meal plans. There are three categories of offering in this plan. The first one is five meals a week, in which you may choose to eat at any of the three cafeterias five times a week. The second meal plan offers eight and the third one offers ten meals per week. All these plans may be availed at the Presidential Court Building Cafeteria, the fresh food company, and the Southern kitchen.
Semester Meal Plan
This is called a block plan which comes in three different offerings for the whole semester. These categories include 50,75, 100, and 165 meals per semester. Like with the other meal plans, the guest meal swipes are standard in all categories; only 5 guest meal swaps are offered regardless of the meal plan you are subscribing to.
Operation Hours
Although the meal plans are reasonably priced, I find their operation timings somewhat odd. The Presidential Court Building Cafetaria or PCB, Southern Kitchen, and the Fresh Food Company operate on a fixed schedule during the weekdays. The PCB and Fresh Food Company start serving from 7:00 am till 8:00 pm. Southern Kitchen starts half an hour later than the two at around 7:30 am but closes its operations at the same time at 8:00 pm.
Many students did not face any inconvenience during weekdays when they were the students there but weekends were bothersome. It is particularly frustrating during the first semester. They pay around $2,115 for the 7-day meal access plan. However, they were not able to take full advantage of it because Southern Kitchen and Fresh food Company do not open during the weekends. PCB is the only cafeteria that operates during the weekend but for a limited duration. It opens at 8:00 am, the same as the weekdays, but closes at 2:30 pm.
Due to these operating hours, they were unable to benefit from my unlimited all-access plan which they paid for in full. The dining dollars were also limited so they had to decide carefully what they may choose because, with the all-access meal plan, they only get 300 dining dollars. This forced them to think about when and when they should not spend their dining dollars.
Conclusion
The meal plans at Tennessee University are somewhat rigid in terms of their design which I find a bit restricting. However, the food is great and the prices of meal plans are reasonable. There are times when the food was not the freshest but their overall experience with the food quality was great. Usually, apart from searching for things like tuition or student loan availability, these upcoming students look at what culinary choices they have beyond what the pictures are telling. Further, they look for what the first-page google results have to say about it their considered university.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) What are Dining Dollars?
They are flexible funds similar to debit-card.
2) Do they serve Halal food?
No, they do not offer halal food.