<p>Thanks Bluebayou re: Dick's House. I am envious of your mini meal plan child.
I am requesting that Food Service implement another food program - maybe "Supersized Big Green Plan" - offering a quantity discount. My son is thin but but really likes the Vermonter and other creations by Dining Services...maybe too much.</p>
<p>Like Blue, my D has money left over until finals when she treats all of her friends who have run out of money (because in the past it used to be use it or lose it). </p>
<p>What I have found over the past years that she has a number of guy friends who kill the food plan and go way over budget (don't worry, Dartmouth will bill you for the difference). </p>
<p>I see that your son is doing crew. I feel for you. One weekend I was in Hanover and we went to Lou's for breakfast. We were sitting across from a bunch of guys who did crew. The ordered so much food and polished it off, you would have thought they had never seen food before. Your son is eating and burning it all right back off.</p>
<p>Regarding Dick's house I agree that you have to be aggressive about getting in, we have been fortunate has D has only had to use Dick's house once.</p>
<p>I'm with Foggy: How do we know how much they're spending/have spent on food so far?? Is there something on-line to look up? I know my son, and I'm sure he's not keeping track, especially if he can just "swipe and go."</p>
<p>My son, who is also doing crew, just told me that he's worried about going over the food plan limit- I recall that all freshmen had to sign up for the middle plan but now I wonder if he can change to the bigger plan. (His eating situation may get complicated because he is a lightweight rower and has to keep below a minimum weight, but meanwhile I'd like him to be able to eat whatever he wants without worrying about the bill.) . </p>
<p>I would also like to know how parents can see the itemized food bills.</p>
<p>To see the itemized bill - go to the Dartmouth Home page. IN the search box - type in "status" - it brings you to the same login your child used to see if they were accepted into Dartmouth - and has their course schedule, health forms, dash card amount etc on it.Then you are on the "Dartmouth College Student Information Page" and must login with your child's username and password - given at the time of their acceptance or when they applied (I forget which) This brings you to the "undergraduate student menu" for your child. Then click on "DASH Card AMOUNT" - and then under "plan name" click on "Dining DBA" for details showing shows transaction time and date, location, and amount.</p>
<p>I agree w/ momofrower. I want my son to eat what he wants and needs to eat get healthy again and stay healthy. My son is also on lightweight crew - but I'm guessing is soon to be a heavy weight with these bills. I wrote the head of food service today and requested another meal plan. If the average is really $40 per day - the Big Green - needs to get Bigger and offer a bigger discount to the quantity eater. I am delighted the food is so tasty - but it is also exhorbitant. Profits must be pretty good. I also like to see an incentive plan for healthy foods. Charge more for fatty or greasy food and less for fruits, vegetables, salads etc.</p>
<p>I agree with all of you. These are college students and the DDS should be subsidized and not out to make profit from the kids. At $40 a day, you can eat pretty well even in New York City. DDS need to look at their pricing.</p>
<p>What are they eating at $40 a day? 2 steaks and a breakfast muffin? Are they overpriced by student standard?</p>
<p>If it were steaks - I'd be happy...and encourage him to go vegetarian 3 ays a week. Nope. It's a peanutbutter, honey, yogurt and banana wrap- which he does love as awful as it sounds - the Vermonter - a maple syrup coated slice of ham w/ apple on bread, and big omlette's for breakfast. The food he says is delicious - but the price seems out of whack. I'm still shell shocked. I hope to hear from the Food Services Director tomorrow and see if they can come up w/ a new food plan. The weird thing is we also supplied him with boxes of protein bars to snack on- but they mustn't be doing the trick. Maybe I'll have to send cardboard for him to chew on.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Any customer wishing to move to the Big Green Plan may do so within the first 5 business days of any term...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>phase2: good luck with the Director of food services since last year I was pushing for just the opposite. The use-it-or-lose Topside account makes absolutely no sense to me. :)</p>
<p>The current plans were just recently implemented after much study which included then-current students so its unlikely they will change anytime soon.</p>
<p>Use or or lose it is no good either. I can understand why it was unpopular. I just think there should be one more plan -the REALLY BIG GREEN or something since the new estimate of $2800 per trimester is so much more than the Big Green -which offers a 10% discount. Especially since I was told $40 per day is not unsual and girls - in fact are spending $50 per day because of salads. Lobster, Filet Mignon, and gold better be in that salad. Perhaps the REALLY BIG GREEN could offer a 25% discount. Food Service could also provide incentive pricing for healthy eating and charge more for comfort foods high in fat to encourage a good diet. Yup- I am still in shock. Myself - had generic cornflakes and water for dinner :)</p>
<p>perhaps they expect the crew team to troll for trout while they stroke. :D</p>
<p>They can carry over an unused balance now, correct? When DD was a freshman, frosh were required to get the almost largest plan, and could not roll over any money at the end of term. Then the answer for your boys was to get friendly with petite frosh girls, and they would feed for the last 2-3 weeks. DD had over $200 left around reading period, and I told her to feel free to feed her friends, rather the boys get fed than it roll over to DDS. I think it is different now, although at the end of spring term they may run into the same issue, because I don't think they can carry over into the next year. D became a master of managing her account. The kids don't like the Topside changes, because that is the only close source of food to eat in the room for those without a car, esp a problem in the winter.</p>
<p>They actually don't seem to have a lot of variety in the fresh veggies in the winter, the salads are rather anemic, I think. The expense is at least partly due to the "living wage", and the organic food. I think the lowest paid employee in food service makes $12 an hour. My DH and I have joked that we are going to retire to Vermont, live in White River and sling hash at the Dartmouth Hop. We'd make about the same amount with much less stress!</p>
<p>Oh, and it is better to undershoot toward the end of the year, they will send you a bill for the remaining balance. DD usually can get it down to within $100/$150. The food is expensive, though, with little opportunity to economize. Even apartment dwellers have to have a meal plan.</p>
<p>phase2:"It's a peanutbutter, honey, yogurt and banana wrap- which he does love as awful as it sounds - the Vermonter - a maple syrup coated slice of ham w/ apple on bread, and big omlette's for breakfast."</p>
<p>Phase2, you saw the itemized bill, right? So the $40 for that day was for the items listed above? That was it? For $40? Wow that is out of whack pricing.</p>
<p>$40 a day is a lot, even at DDS prices ... it's actually kind of ridiculous. Yea, things are overpriced (I mean, a PB&J sandwich shouldn't cost $2.75, nor should having avocado spread boost your sandwich price by $1.00, but all the prices are so high so that DDS can pay employees a living wage (and have the highest paying jobs on campus that are available for all students), and to help subsidize the cost of increasing amounts of organic and free/fair trade food. Furthermore, the plan to minimize waste (especially at Home Plate and Food Court) costs money, but the social cost might be worth it.</p>
<p>Furthermore, you can't really see an itemized bill, even online ... all you see is something like DATE, TIME, DDS - Home Plate: -$7.95 or what have you ... you don't know what it was spent on.</p>
<p>People do get hosed on the salads, which are lacking at Food Court and to some extent Home Plate, but at Collis they're really not too bad. At any rate, they are extremely expensive for the weight. A lot of people also blow money buying things like yogurt (which are exceedingly overpriced ... $1.85 at FoCo), ice cream, and frozen yogurt ... essentially anything sold by weight is highly priced.</p>
<p>The peanutbutter, yogurt, honey and banana wrap (either peanut butter surprise at Home Plate or log roll at FoCo, i'm assuming) are each about $5, so that's not really gonna drive up your daily budget; omelets are actually reasonably priced when compared to your average breakfast place. Also, switching plans is sort of not worth it ... the big green plan is good if you're sure you're going to use all of it, otherwise, it's not really worth it. The discount (10%) isn't all that much, and if you end up not using all of the money it's essentially the same cost as if you bought the lower plan but went negative. If it's between the two lowest plans you're deciding, obviously buying the smaller one is more beneficial. Actually the middle plan has no purpose.</p>
<p>I think the reason most people end up using so much (and eating so much) is the availability of food at all times with no real consequences (DBA is not treated like real money by anyone), so people tend to buy snack food (which is egregiously priced) or eat more than normal because it's all there.</p>
<p>Anyway I hope this helped someone.</p>
<p>phase 2.... the orb of disease</p>
<p>you must understand the number 1 avocation at dartmouth is beer pong where your son will pick up a ball off the gross frat floor and then have to drink a beer after this germ infested ball lands in a beer cup...his body will become immune to this orb of disease as he moves on to sophomore year...</p>
<p>dicks house is a problem..over the past 3 years my son has had mono(first term freshman year), a broken toe, bronchitis etc....if your son is very ill<br>
safety and security will pick him up any time of day or night and take him to
the er at the dartmouth medical center....last spring there was an
outbreak of conjunctivitis on campus and no one could get into dicks
house for other problems..
sounds like its time for your son to ease back from nitelife and hit the library every day...common for freshman to be overwhelmed but the D plan is unforgiving with its acceleration twd midterms and finals</p>
<p>LOL on the posts! Thanks - good info. I am hoping for a solution from the head of food services today maybe so I don't have to start growing my own food in a pot on the porch. My son likes his yogurt every day- probably more than once a day. Is the gas staion convenient store on S. Main a better place to get them? I bought him 10 there before I left - and the price wasn't bad as I recall - but my mental state was frazzeled due to whole impending MTNest status. My son is miserably sick - most likely from the DOC trip where his group slept out in the pouring rain for 2 nights - no lean to - as another group grabbed it first and didn't want to "spoon." His sleeping bag weighed 300 pounds when he returned - pure water. I was suprised it didn't immediately knock him off his feet and he was okay for the move-in day. Now - he has the dreaded Dartmouth conjunctivitis. Below is an article from 2002 NY Times saying the "bad kind" hit Dartmouth and Priceton - I think pinning patient zero as a Priceton swimmer...Hopefully - my son doesn't have the staph kind - but I guess he'll find out tomorrow. The pong ball is brilliant - and may be the solution of last resort.</p>
<p>Pinkeye Cases Baffle 2 Ivy League Colleges
By KATE ZERNIKE
Medical researchers are searching for reasons why an outbreak of pinkeye stayed specific to the Dartmouth and Princeton University campuses.</p>
<p>phase2:</p>
<p>In addition to the convenience store and CVS, which carries some grocery items, your S could walk down to the Coop grocery store -- it's a few blocks past the stadium and stock up on yogurt, assuming he has a refrigerator in his dorm.</p>
<p>Thx Bluebayou. I didn't know the Coop carried food. Great advice! That would be a help! I heard back from Dining Services - a very nice and thoughtful reply - and am going to have a follow up conversation - after we track my sons eating habits in detail. I also requested they look into profits on healthy items - as maybe they are higher than intended. I have no issue charging sky high prices for cakes, cookies, fatty foods - but think milk, yogurt, eggs, fruit, and salads should have low profit margins on a college campus. I also wonder how much nonorganic food is available ...and if menu prices could be posted online... just like "real" restaurants ... and if healthy cost effective daily specials could be added.</p>
<p>I see menus are posted - I'd like prices to be added.</p>