Unlimited meal plans to arrive at NCF

To address food insecurity and offer more cost-effective options for students, New College is making several changes to the current meal plan on campus.

During the April 15 meeting of the New College Board of Trustees Finance and Administration Committee meeting, Vice President for Finance and Administration Chris Kinsley introduced the “Access and Learning Initiative” for Fall 2021 implementation.

The proposed changes, if approved by the full New College Board of Trustees on June 5, will include full meal plan scholarships for all Pell Grant students, as well as unlimited access meal plans for all students.

Kinsley stated that the initiative is intended to tackle both food insecurity and reduce the time students spend on meal prep (shopping, cooking and cleaning). With the new Unlimited Access Plan, students will no longer have to worry about “stretching” their meal plan budget to make it last the whole term.

While there are additional costs associated with the Unlimited Access Plan, these will not be passed on to new or existing students. Rather, the College intends to fully subsidize the increase in meal plan prices for all students and increase the meal plan scholarship to 100 percent for Pell Grant students (using institutional funds).

“I invite both existing and prospective students to compare our net new proposed prices to other colleges. They are quite competitive and should appeal to those students seeking both high quality and high value,” Kinsley said. “This aligns with New College’s goal from its founding in 1960, which was to provide education of the highest caliber to extremely bright students at a very affordable cost.”