Dining dollars now discounted by five percent at select locations

Students on a dining plan can now save 5 percent at certain dining locations, including Houston Hall and Mark’s Cafe.

The discount is new this fall and offers students a real benefit to using Dining Dollars on campus, as opposed to other methods of payment.

“I didn’t see any real benefit of being on the dining plan because Dining Dollars were one-to-one with cash,” College junior Adam Mansell said. “Something like this could be a real incentive to sign-up for a dining plan.”

Other locations where the discount applies include Gourmet Grocer, McClelland Express, Accenture Cafe and the New College House, according to the Penn Dining website. 

Certain retail dining locations, such as Tortas Frontera and Beefsteak, are on franchised agreements with the University through Bon Appetit and thus are not eligible for a 5 percent discount, Director of Business Services Pamela Lampitt said.

Last year about 4,300 students were on a dining plan. Most were undergraduates who lived in on-campus housing. Because these students have the option of using cash, credit or bursar on campus, the new discount is about offering value in a dining plan, Lampitt said.

“We wanted students to find more value in why they should choose a dining plan,” Lampitt said.

The Dining Dollar discount is one of several changes to Penn’s dining system this year. Others include extended dinner hours at Kings Court English College House and the addition of the New College House, which features community dining.

“What’s interesting about all of [these changes] is that all of them came from student feedback,” Director of Communications and External Relations for Business Services Barbara Lea-Kruger said. “Dining is really trying to be responsive and find interesting ways that they can accommodate what students want.”

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