Your 2025/2026 Wabash Resident Meal Plan or Wabash Commuter Meal Plan operates like a pre-loaded debit card with the initial amount determined by your specific plan. The Wabash Standard Plan starts with a balance of $2450 per academic term and declines from there according to purchases. This plan is not time-bound and offers ultimate flexibility to eat at any of the locations on campus (Wabash Caf, C-Store, Starbucks or Franklin’s Cafe). You can also purchase meals for friends or family or donate funds to the food pantry, should you choose to do so. You are only charged according to what you eat, when you want to eat.

The meal plan last year, in 2024/2025, was an All You Care to Eat meal plan with the Wabash Standard Plan offering 14 meals per week. If you did not eat all 14 meals within a given week, the meal went away and you lost the value of that meal. If you ate a bowl of soup for lunch, you were “charged” the same amount as someone who ate two entrees and numerous sides. The average number of meals eaten per week in 24/25 was 9 meals per week, meaning an average student lost 5 meals per week.

Here’s the math on last years meal plan and actual cost per meal for the average Roosevelt:

-Academic Term Meal Plan Charge in 24/25 was $2282.50 inclusive of $375 in retail flex dollars.
-Exclusive of Flex the term charge for AYCE meals $1910.50 and the TOTAL number of meals possible on the Standard Plan was 228 (16.3 weeks in academic term X 14 meals per week)
-This cost breakdown comes to $8.40 per meal – IF you were to eat all 228 meals
-However, most students ate far less than 228 available meals. The average meals per week eaten was 9 per week, a 35% reduction. So, that average cost per meal actually eaten is much higher than $8.40 and, in fact, was over $11 per meal when adjusting for missed meals. So, the average student lost $680.40 in uneaten meals.
-Couple this with the fact that some meals used were a cup of soup, or a muffin, and the meal plan was not equitable or transparent for the majority of Roosevelt Students. Light eaters were subsidizing the meal plan for the heavy eaters.

This is in large part why your declining balance meal plan offers more flexibility and value than the old meals per week plan! You are not charged for meals you don’t eat. If you eat just a cup of soup or a muffin, you are charged just for a cup of soup or a muffin. You don’t even ever have to eat in the cafeteria if you don’t want to! You can get all your food and drinks from the c-store, Starbucks or Franklins Cafe.

Of course we want you to come to all campus locations and the team works hard everyday to bring you delicious Caf meals like the one pictured above!