UF’s Florida Fresh Dining program, led by UF Business Services, achieved its first-ever meal plan sales goal of $10 million last year.

Courtland Thomas, district marketing director for Florida Fresh Dining, said sales numbers were not necessarily the goal but were the result of catering to UF students.

“Our goal was to grow student engagement through this particular campaign that happens to be through meal plans,” Thomas said.

He said making the plan voluntary, not compulsory, was key to its success.

“Students chose to have a plan,” Thomas said. “It was encouraging to know that students are really buying into the program, the partnership that we’ve offered at the University of Florida.”

Florida Fresh Dining has 49 food locations on campus, including two residential dining halls and several favorite national brands such as Subway, Chick-fil-A, Einstein Bros Bagels, Panda Express, Pollo Tropical, Starbucks Coffee, and Firehouse Subs.

Thomas said he’s excited to see where the program goes in the future and considers the sales numbers “astounding.”

Robin Stewart, UF’s director of administration and finance for Business Services, said the strategic plan behind the success of the dining program started with a partnership with Chartwells Higher Education in 2022.

“They hit the ground running with kind of an aggressive approach towards improving all of our current dining program needs, and at the same time, becoming very active within our summer orientation sessions, which we call preview, to really get the word out to parents and students on what types of options they would have on our campus,” she said.

Stewart said they also made sure students and parents had a full range of updates and a new, easier way for students to annually sign up for a meal plan.

“They don’t even need to come to our office,” Stewart said. “They can do it online, if they want to. And basically, once they pick a meal plan, it’s activated for them within 15 minutes for use. So, it’s a super simple process.”

Stewart said as they moved into the summer of 2023, they also launched mobile IDs for on-campus students and integrated it with the student’s meal plan purchase.

Thomas said the overall strategy helped meet students where they are, which is first through digital resources discussing meal options for those parents and families who couldn’t attend summer orientation.

The second phase of the plan included virtual engagements with parents, including breakout rooms for those who had specific questions. Staff also tabled during orientation season, engaging with parents and prospective students during lunch or when they had a break.

Thomas said the plan’s third phase, recruiting nutrition ambassadors, was especially important.

“We hired students who were seniors or graduate students who were studying to become a registered dietician,” Thomas said. “They work in tandem with our campus dietitian in order to help students that have a food allergy or intolerance and help them navigate the dining program.”

Thomas said the team also introduced a suite of tools and resources, including a wellness guide, that helped break down the barriers to campus dining.

Giving away UF merch helped the program succeed, too.

“We gave out almost 2,000 of our signature tie-dyed T-shirts,” Thomas said. “Our slogan for our dining program is, ‘Love where you shop,’ and so it’s a blue tie-dye T-shirt just has our slogan on the front.”

Thomas said it is encouraging to see the shirts around campus.

“I don’t think I have seen a day where I have not seen that T-shirt in some form or fashion,” he said. “The only way to get that T-shirt [is] by signing up and participating in our dining program for a meal plan.”