According to the Furman Dining website, “Meal exchanges are the equivalence to a meal swipe at the retail locations on campus.” Does this mean equivalent in terms of price? Content?
The obvious answer might be that meal exchanges are meals on campus that fall within a certain price range. If that’s the case, why are there smoothies at Blend & Bowl that don’t count as meal exchanges, if there are two options for the same price that do? If price is the determining factor, why do a $5.19 sandwich from the Grab ‘n Go section and an $11 Moe’s bowl both count, but none of the Chick-fil-A breakfast options in that price range do?
OK, maybe it’s the content that makes something a meal exchange. In admissions, tour guides often tell prospective parents that a meal exchange is the equivalent of a full meal with “a side and a drink.” This is certainly true at Moe’s and Chick-fil-A, but is a smoothie meal exchange at Blend & Bowl supposed to be all of these in one? Am I supposed to steal a side when I get a Grab ‘n Go meal exchange at the PDen?
We could conclude that meal exchanges are just specific items without a concrete rationale. Wrong again. Several of the Grab ‘n Go options at PDen, including salads and sandwiches, are also sold at the LibCafe. The exact same item is eligible for a meal exchange when bought in Trone but is not when bought in the Library, revealing that even the contents of meal exchanges are inconsistent.
So why does this matter? The reason is simple: students are unsatisfied with the quantity and quality of meal exchange options.
Since meal exchanges are a part of every meal plan, students look for ways to use all of their allotted exchanges on the limited options available. After learning about new smoothie meal exchanges at Blend & Bowl, Jack Buss ‘27 said, “The odds of me getting a smoothie just went up 900%.”
On a different note, some students find the meal exchange options inadequate because there are not many healthy options. Between fast food like Chick-fil-A and Moe’s and protein-less salad options at The Paddock, students find they don’t crave meal exchange items as much as other options on campus. Natalie Porter ‘27 expressed frustration with even the healthy-seeming Blend & Bowl offerings, explaining that “the smoothie meal exchange options aren’t great because they have no protein.”
Additionally, some students just get bored with our limited meal exchange choices. Maggie Kropf ‘28 has only been here a year and is already dissatisfied with the same meal exchange options always being offered. She has a new idea for Paddock meal exchanges: “Maybe have the burgers and salads all the time but rotate one of their other dishes. Just because I love The Paddock, and I don’t love spending all of my food points!”
As is clear from their feedback, students are more likely to frequent their favorite dining places on campus if they offer meal exchanges, and they are excited at the prospect of new options being added.
The bottom line is that there is no logical reason for this lack of meal exchange options. Either Furman needs to come up with a stricter criteria for determining what counts as a meal exchange, or they need to expand their list of options to include the items the students want.
