What is a Meal Plan?
A Meal Plan unlocks delicious meals, coffee, snacks, and more, at 15 locations across campus. Your Meal Plan includes Meal Swipes and Flex Dollars, conveniently loaded onto your Ram-E-Card. No need to carry additional cards or cash!
What you need to know:
- If you live on North Campus, you are required to have a meal plan and may only choose from the Ultimate Plan, Gold Plan, or Purple Plan. The meal plan you select during the Fall Semester will auto-renew for the Spring Semester unless you change it.
- South Campus Residents, Commuters, and Off-Campus Students are not required to have a meal plan but are welcome to choose from any meal plan. These meal plans do not auto-renew and must be purchased before the meal plan sign-up window closes which is normally two weeks into a semester.
- Meal Plans can be added or changed within the first two weeks of each semester. You can check the Key Dates section at the bottom of the page for those dates.
- The weekly plans (Gold Plan and Purple Plan) come with a set number of meal swipes per week. With these two plans, if you do not use your set number of meals during a week, those meals will roll to the next week and will continue to roll over week to week, but they will expire at the end of the semester if not used. For example, if you are on the Purple Plan and only use 5 meals your first week, the remaining 5 meals will roll to the next week which will leave your meal swipe balance at 15 meal swipes.
- The block plans (Block 120, Block 75, and Block 30) have a set number of meals per semester. What this means is that one week you could use 10 swipes, the next week you could use 20 swipes, and the week after that you could use 2 swipes. You are not restricted to how many swipes you can use in a week but instead, you are given a bucket of meals to use how you want throughout the semester, but they will expire at the end of the semester if not used.
- Every meal plan comes with Flex dollars included. Flex Dollars roll over year to year until you graduate or leave the university, at which point you forfeit your remaining balance. See the “Flex Dollars” section below for more information.
- You can sign up for your meal plan on the MyWCU portal at my.wcupa.edu.
Meal Swipes
Meal Swipes give you access to our all-you-care-to-eat dining hall, The Commons. Unused meal swipes for weekly plans (The Gold Plan & The Purple Plan) rollover week to week and will continue to roll over until the end of the semester, at which point they will be forfeited. Block Plans have a set number of meal swipes per semester and can be used as needed throughout the semester, but any unused meals will be forfeited at the end of the semester. Meal swipes are also available to be used at select retail locations – navigate to the Cash Equivalency and Meal Exchange sections for how you can use your meal swipes other locations.
Flex Dollars
Flex Dollars are WCU Dining Services currency and may be used at all West Chester University Dining location. Flex Dollars come with all six of our available meal plans and work like a bank debit card. Whatever you buy, the total purchase is subtracted from your Flex Dollars balance. Flex Dollars roll over semester to semester until you graduate or leave the University - at which point they expire. You may add Flex Dollars to your account at any time in increments of $25 by emailing housing@wcupa.edu. Flex Dollars may also be used in conjunction with your meal swipes at retail locations that accept Cash Equivalency (please see Cash Equivalency section for more details). Visit our location page for location information, including dining hall menus and hours of operation.
Cash Equivalency
Outside of Commons Dining Hall, select retail locations allow you to use meal swipes, which carry a cash value of $6.85. Our locations that allow Cash Equivalency are:
- Rams Head Food Court – B+F, Greens to Go, Sandwich Shack, Bento Sushi, and Chick-fil-A
- Chickie’s & Pete’s
- Einstein Bros. Bagels
- Power Up
- Freshens
- Eco Grounds
You may use two cash equivalency swipes per transaction (at most locations – Bento Sushi will accept a maximum of one cash equivalency swipe per transaction). Students with the Ultimate Plan may use three (3) cash equivalency swipes each day. When your weekly (for the weekly plans) or semester (for the block plans) meal swipe total is reached, you may use credit, Flex, or Ram Bucks (Cash only accepted at Commons Dining Hall, Starbucks, and our POD Convenience Stores).
Here is a quick example of how you may use Cash Equivalency:
Rammy has the Ultimate Meal Plan and wants Chickie’s & Pete’s for dinner. He has already used two cash equivalency swipes at today and is now left with one to use on his Chickie’s & Pete’s order. He orders Chicken Cutlets and Crab Fries which come out to a total of $17.00. Rammy may use his remaining cash equivalency swipes for the day (which is equivalent to $6.85) and pays the remaining balance of $10.15 with his Flex Dollars.
Meal Exchange
Meal exchange is an option to ‘exchange’ your meal swipes for a preset combo meal option in select retail locations. It allows you the option to purchase meals beyond Commons Dining Hall. There is one location on campus that currently runs a meal exchange deal:
- Einstein Bros. Bagels – One meal swipe gets you a bagel with either schmear, butter, or peanut butter and a medium hot or iced coffee.
- To use the meal deal at Einstein Bros. Bagels, make sure your Ram Card is connected to Grubhub (the mobile ordering app used across campus) and when you select the location on the app, choose the option that reads “Einstein Bros. Bagels – Meal Plan”, and that will take you directly to the meal swipe combo.
Guest Meals
Guest meals can be used in the Commons Dining Hall for family, friends, or even a professor you want to treat to a meal. The Ultimate. Purple, & Gold Plans each come with 5 guest meals per semester.
Meal Plan Benefits
With your meal plan, you receive many benefits and perks, including:
- Quality food made fresh by our culinary team, with a variety of menu options personalized the way you like.
- Healthy choices available across campus.
- Special events with themed meals and exclusive offers for meal plan members.
- Casual atmospheres with TVs, music and lounge-style seating—perfect for studying or hanging out with friends.
- Dedicated True Balance Allergen Friendly station at Commons Dining Hall.
Need to take your meal to-go from Commons Dining Hall: Simply request a reusable to-go box when you swipe in at The Commons Dining Hall. You will pay a one-time amount of $5.00 for the reusable container that you have 15-minutes to fill up in the dining hall. If you come back again and need to get a meal to go and don’t want to pay the $5.00, you may bring back your previous reusable container, thoroughly rinsed out, and exchange it for another reusable container at no cost.
Managing Your Plan
There are a few ways you can check your Meal Swipes and Flex balance:
- On your receipt upon request.
- On the Ram Card Website.
Flex Dollars running low? No problem! You can add more Flex at any time during the year.
Key Dates
Fall 2024 Semester
- Meal Plan Begins - August 21, 2024
- First Day of Classes - August 26, 2024
- Meal Plan add/drop date ends September 6th, 2024
Spring 2025 Semester
- Meal Plan Begins – January 18, 2025
- First Day of Classes – January 20, 2025
- Meal Plan add/drop date ends January 31, 2025
