U.Va. Dine is debuting changes that will add flexibility to students’ dining experience, according to an email sent to students just before the beginning of the semester. Spring semester additions to the dining experience on Grounds mainly impacted dining options in the Pavilion XI at Newcomb Hall, including a new Chick-fil-A meal exchange exclusively Fridays, as well as cementing Subway and Starbucks meal exchanges that were first introduced last semester.
However, as a result of increased demand for these new options, students have experienced much longer waiting times and some have been discouraged from ordering after seeing their estimated wait.
Depending on the type of meal plan they have, students have access to a certain number of dining swipes, meal exchanges and Flex Dollars which they can use around Grounds at various dining locations. Dining swipes may only be used at one of the three dining halls.
Meal exchanges allow students who have a dining plan to order a preset meal option from other dining locations at no additional cost. Students with a meal plan are able to use two or three meal exchanges per day, depending on the plan. Flex Dollars, of which an allotted amount is purchased as part of a dining plan, allow students to buy items at full price, exempt from sales tax.
Chick-fil-A is one dining option now piloting meal exchanges on Fridays. The option was first offered Jan. 17, and saw large numbers of students ordering throughout the day. During peak lunch hours, wait times were consistently above 30 minutes, with more than 100 students in line at 11:00 a.m. and noon, according to the Grubhub app.
Second-year College student Jenna Warner said that she originally intended to try the Chick-fil-A meal exchange, but decided not to after seeing the wait would be around 45 minutes.
“I was planning on getting [a meal exchange], but there were just so many people in line,” Warner said. “I didn’t feel like waiting, so I just went home and cooked for myself instead.”
By the end of Friday, over 900 students had ordered meal exchanges at Chick-fil-A according to the Grubhub app — and Chick-fil-A is not the only meal exchange at the Pavilion XI, which is open from 11am to 5pm Fridays and 11am to 8pm Monday through Thursday.
After piloting meal exchange options for Starbucks and Subway in Newcomb Hall during the Fall 2024 semester, U.Va. Dine is now offering daily meal exchanges at both of these locations. Students with a meal plan may now order from a limited menu with one of their meal exchange meal swipes through the Grubhub app. Previously, students with a meal plan were only able to pay with Flex Dollars at these locations.
Warner said that she believes these new options are a good idea and said that the Starbucks meal exchange is especially exciting for her as she orders from the Newcomb Hall location, the only one on-Grounds, frequently. However, she also said she is concerned that the number of people trying to order meal exchanges will only increase, making it more difficult to order food at these locations.
“After experiencing a really long line, I’m just worried that [the number of people ordering meal exchanges] is only going to increase,” Warner said.
A Starbucks meal exchange includes either a hot or iced coffee, along with a choice of one out of a list of different pastries and other snacks. Although these items would normally be ordered separately, students could expect to pay at least $3 to $4 for a coffee and an additional $2 to $5 depending on which pastry they choose when ordering through retail, excluding tax.
At Subway, students may use a meal exchange Monday through Friday to order from a variety of different six inch sub meals, which would normally cost anywhere from $8.58 to $9.48 depending on which sandwich they order, excluding tax.
Both of these options appear popular with students, potentially causing delays in delivering orders. Second-year Architecture student Daniel Fleming said he has tried the Subway meal exchange options twice, but canceled his order in both instances due to unexpected wait times. Fleming said he waited 20 minutes, during which only one Grubhub order was finished while he was still eighth in queue.
“They prioritize the orders of the people that are actually going through the line instead of ordering through Grubhub,” Fleming said. “There were a bunch of people waiting with me … and people kept coming through the normal line, so I just canceled my order.”
Despite these experiences, Fleming said he believes the new meal exchanges are a good idea in order to give students a wider array of options. He also said that now that he has had the experience of ordering Subway through Grubhub, he will order further in advance in the future.
“There is a lot of demand for the restaurants on Grounds that aren’t the dining halls … so, I think it’s a good thing that it exists,” Fleming said. “You just have to be smart about when you order and how far in advance you plan your meals.”
Outside of meal exchanges, U.Va. Dine is also making changes to the dining halls this semester. According to the U.Va. Dine email, the Fresh Food Co. in Newcomb Hall will introduce new stations such as a deli that will replace the current vegan station. Meanwhile, the vegan station will be relocated to a different station within the dining hall.
“All three major dining halls are focusing on improvements to enhance your dining experience,” the email read.
All dining halls and dining locations on Grounds returned to normal hours Jan. 13 after closing or observing reduced hours over winter break.
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