Meal exchange error fixed quickly, vending issue persists

This semester, students have run into a couple of unexpected changes to their meal plans: fewer meal swipes for a few weeks, and an ongoing issue using dining dollars at vending machines. 

One issue, a temporary reduction in weekly meal swipes, was corrected within the first week of classes. The other, students' inability to use dining dollars at vending machines since a vendor switch, is expected to be resolved in the coming weeks.

When students returned to campus on Aug. 23, some noticed a change to their meal plan: the allotted number of meal exchanges — the swipes that can be used at the Market C-store, campus Starbucks or Chick-fil-A — had dropped. Regardless of their meal plan option (either unlimited swipes or 15 weekly), students could only use three swipes per week instead of five as in previous years.

Junior Heidi Blecher said she first ran into the change while grabbing dinner from the Market C-store before marching band.

"I tried to swipe in, and it wouldn't let me, so they had to take some of my Flex dollars instead,” Blecher said. “I was pretty frustrated about it.”

She said the timing made it worse, given how little time she has between activities. 

Damian Lewis, general manager of Sodexo at Augustana, acknowledged the confusion the change caused. 

"Students were understandably confused and concerned when they returned in the fall to see changes to their meal plans without any communication," Lewis said. 

According to Lewis, the reduction wasn’t an intentional policy change. He said the reduction was the result of "an internal miscommunication" during setup that mistakenly set the meal exchanges to three per week instead of five.

Blecher said she never heard Sodexo acknowledge the mistake or that the mistake was fixed. She said this lack of communication was frustrating but not surprising.

"It's hard to expect communication from a place where even the food that's advertised doesn't always match what's actually served," she said. 

"If any changes to meal plans were to happen in the future, these will be communicated to students with full transparency," Lewis said.

A separate issue has been a bit slower to fix: vending machines.

Since the start of the school year, students have not been able to use their dining dollars at the vending machines across campus as they have in years past.

According to Whitney Jibben, director of facility operations at Augustana, this stems from a change in vending services. 

The university's previous vending provider, PepsiCo, subcontracted its vending services to a local company, GreatNFresh. The switch brought a wider variety of snack and drink options, Jibben said, but also required new card readers, which aren't yet compatible with dining dollar accounts. 

"We are working with GreatNFresh to update the card reader information so dining dollars can be used on vending again, and we hope this is completed in the next few weeks," Jibben said. 

In the meantime, some students have stopped using the vending machines altogether.

"Once they stopped letting students use dining dollars at the vending machines, I stopped using them," said senior Gabby Erickson.

While the vending machines do not currently accept dining dollars, students can still use their dining dollars at the Market C-store in the Morrison Commons. But for Erickson, that’s not always a convenient option.

“If I’m at the Madsen [Center] and I want a snack for studying, it’s pretty inconvenient to have to walk to the Commons instead of having the vending machine as an option if I’m not wanting to spend money that’s not associated with my meal plan,” Erickson said.

For now, Erickson will have to wait for GreatNFresh to finish updating the machines' card readers.