Abigail Cochran
Staff Writer
The 2023-2024 school year has brought changes to campus dining: the layout of Wynee’s Bistro, the meal plans and the price of food on campus.
In Wynee’s Bistro, also known as the cafeteria, recent renovations have transformed the Bistro into a brighter space with freshly painted white and red walls. Other changes in the renovation include fewer walls and new flooring.
“The new cafeteria set-up is nice,” freshman Ivy Malave said. “The lines move pretty quickly.”
Alongside making recent improvements to the cafeteria, FSC also made recent news in this year’s 2024 rankings of The Princeton Review in their annual “The Best 389 Colleges” list. FSC took spot #2 under the “Campus Food Not So Tasty” list, which is based on student rankings from each respected institution.
This #12 ranking is an improvement from last year’s ranking. In the 2023 edition, FSC ranked #7 on the “Campus Food Not So Tasty” list, five spots higher than this year.
Freshman Kelly Kolkowski revealed that she was “actually pretty shocked about the rating,” but she does believe the #12 ranking is “fitting” when the campus food options are compared to other colleges and universities in the nation.
The interior of Wynee’s Bistro isn’t the only change this year regarding food—the structure of freshmen meal plans have changed.
For freshmen, it is required to be on the first-year meal plan, which is designed to provide first-year students with 20 meals per week. First-year meal plans now cost $2,750 per semester. This is a $300 increase from the cost for the 2022-2023 school year, which was $2,450 per semester.
Additionally, a new requirement has been implemented to the freshman meal-plan. Starting this year, all students on the plan receive six meal swipes every Monday. These six swipes, which in total are valued at $54, can only be used at Wynee’s Bistro.
Similar price increases can be seen in the other meal plans as well, with the average increase in meal plan cost per semester being $229. The total number of flex dollars has decreased for each plan,
Meal plans are not the only food-related-prices that witnessed a jump in prices this year. Prices at the Moc Mart, the on-campus convenience store, have been on the rise as well.
“As a college kid with not that much money, the increasing Moc Mart prices are definitely inconvenient,” Senior Ivy Thrasher said. “But I know if I go to Target for what I buy at Moc Mart, it’ll still be more expensive.”
The cost of Meal Deals have been consistently rising in recent years. Meal Deals typically come with an entree, side and a beverage, and can be used at one of the nine food venues on campus.
Two years ago, Meal Deals cost 6 Snake Bites (main form of campus currency) each, but this current school year, the Meal Deals cost 9 Snake Bites. As one Snake Bite is roughly equivalent to one dollar, this means that Meal Deals have increased by $3 in the past three years.
With the increase in food prices throughout campus, an increase in campus dining locations has occurred as well. “The food quality hasn’t gone up but the on-campus food options have increased.” Thrasher said.
On-campus food options have expanded over the past few years, with options such as the Mocket Ship food truck being introduced as a new dining option last year. These new options allow students to choose from a larger variety of food options, ranging from acai bowls to quesadillas.
