Over 466 students received meal swipes from Student Success Initiatives, H&D partnership

Housing and Dining postpones feedback session after start time, students left in rain

By James Cancelarich     9/2/25 9:15pm

A Housing and Dining feedback event about the new meal plan — about which many students expressed concern –- was scheduled for Sept. 1, and a handful of students showed up in the pouring rain. Over 30 minutes after the event was scheduled to begin, and with no H&D representatives in sight, H&D announced via Instagram story that the event was postponed due to weather.

 The students were attempting to discuss the new unlimited meal swipe system that was announced prior to the start of the semester.

One concern was what would happen to the Student Association’s meal swipe donation program. Under the program, swipes could be donated to allocate to students living off campus with demonstrated need. Under the new program, a joint effort between H&D and Student Success Initiatives, meal swipes were allocated directly from H&D, with an option for off-campus students to donate swipes.

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Taylor Breshears, the associate director of SSI, said that the program supported over 466 students, out of over 600 students who submitted applications. More than half of the students received at least 85 meal swipes, Breshears said. 

Breshears did not provide a specific number of swipes allocated. However, she said that it surpassed previous semesters, with the exception of spring 2025. That semester, the program saw record success with over 16,905 meal swipes donated in the first round. Breshears said that the new program surpassed the first round of donations from spring 2025, but not the total donations from that semester, which included an expanded mid-semester donation period.

“We are dedicated to advocating for our food-insecure student population and are actively seeking innovative solutions to enhance our services, raise awareness, and more effectively meet the needs of our most vulnerable students,” Breshears wrote in an email to the Thresher.

Patiance Wiley received 85 swipes through the new system. She said it was comparable to the number of swipes she received in previous years through the donation program.

“At least then, we knew they were pulling from a certain amount of swipes that were donated,” said Wiley, a Will Rice College junior. “The number didn’t feel as arbitrary. But now I just feel like they’re handing out numbers.”

At 85 swipes throughout the semester, Wiley figures that she has about one meal a day. She said she is worried about the end of the semester.

“I’m gonna feel more anxious about, ‘oh, what if I’m really hungry tomorrow,’” Wiley said. “I might as well just wait the hour bus ride till I get home and see if I have food in my home to cook, because I don’t have that much money … I have maybe $100 to spend on groceries during the school year, which is why I spent so much time in the serveries here.”

Wiley said that she felt the new meal plan was contributing to meal insecurity around campus. With the limited guest swipes for on-campus students, Wiley said that she feels even more anxious about asking people to swipe her into the serveries.

Wiley said that she is currently advocating for H&D to introduce a mid-semester swipe allocation program as well as reverting back to their previous meal plan system.

Along with emailing, she said she planned to give feedback at an open call from H&D to share opinions to include in a report created after the postponed Sept. 1 event. 

Beth Leaver, the interim assistant vice president for housing, dining and hospitality, said that the event was intended for student-to-student conversation about the changes.

“Due to inclement weather, the team decided to cancel,” Leaver wrote in an email to the Thresher. “We regret the confusion this caused. Unfortunately, the update did not go out in time to prevent students from waiting, and we apologize for anyone that was inconvenienced. We remain committed to listening and to creating dining programs that meet the needs of our community.”

Duncan College junior Rachel Andersen lived off campus for the past two years. Under the meal swipe donation program last year, she said she received 50 swipes in the fall. In the spring, she initially received 10 swipes, but mid-semester, she received an additional 30 swipes.

Under the new system, she received 40 meal swipes for this semester.

“I’m on financial aid, and I can’t really afford to spend $800 on even the smallest meal plan,” Andersen said.

Andersen said that she was grateful that the meal swipes would allow her the convenience of dining on campus and to save money on groceries. However, she said that she felt a difference in the program. In previous years, the number of allocated meal swipes was clearer, all of which came from donated meal swipes. 

“It’s uneasy to feel like they’re trying to make more money, make less food and frame it in a way that it sounds good, say that it’s unlimited,” Andersen said. “They were already unlimited. People had way too many to deal with anyway.”

The previous meal plan required on-campus students to buy the plan with 375 meal swipes per semester. Some students said that the amount was excessive and that they had leftover swipes at the end of a semester.

Conner Schultz said he receives full tuition covered by Rice financial aid. Living off campus this year, he bought Meal Plan B, which provides 85 swipes, $100 in Tetra and 15 guest swipes at a cost of $975, which he described as a financial burden. He did not receive any swipes from SSI’s allocation program.

“It’s really a tight squeeze for both semesters, especially when it’s almost $1,000,” said Schultz, a Will Rice sophomore.

He said that the limited guest swipes were difficult for him. In addition, Schultz had voluntarily decided to move off campus his sophomore year so that he could ensure housing for the rest of his time at Rice.

“Having the ability to get swipes from other people really, really helps,” Schultz said “Now that I cannot do that, I really worry about my ability to actually get food on campus.” 

Given the timing of H&D’s announcement of the new plan – July 31, 25 days before the semester began – Schultz said that he planned out his budget working under the assumption that there would be a donation program. Schultz said that he felt he was not working with complete information or transparency from H&D.

To help address some of the concerns around campus food access, Schultz began a GroupMe chat called “Rice WTF (Where’s the Food?)”

In the GroupMe chat, students post about events at Rice with free food. They also air their grievances about the new meal swipe program. One night, after a party left an excess of cupcakes, students delivered them around campus to other people in the chat.

“A lot of people on campus really, really like helping one another,” Schultz said. “I really love that about Rice. We have a really deep nature of community, and even with Rice trying to actively kill it with the ending of meal swipes, I think that we still are going to fight this and try to help each other.”

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