First Year Dining Plans 2023-2024 || Cal Poly Campus Dining

With an ever-evolving menu of meal, snack and grab-and-go options from sit down venues, pop-ups and local food trucks, Campus Dining offers incoming students the flexibility, convenience and value they crave. Campus Dining has more than 30 unique places to eat throughout four distinct campus neighborhoods including four markets and over 800 menu options. And these menus offer a wide variety of choices and options for each individual dietary consideration – vegan and vegetarian, gluten free, Kosher, lactose free and more. Not finding options that work? Campus Dining has a registered dietitian available to help. Eating on campus is easy, and Mustangs have the freedom to choose what they want, when they want – and it all begins with the right plan to fit their lifestyle.

Select the right fit from three plans

Food plays a huge and very personal role in students’ lives, and each relationship with it is different. Some students live to eat, while others are happy to snack their way through the day. For this reason, Campus Dining offers three dining plans that use a “declining balance system” that works like money on a debit card.

To ensure a student has just the right amount of dining dollars – not too little or too many – make sure to select a dining plan that fits their personal eating habits and lifestyle. While choosing the least expensive option may be tempting, ask if it will be enough to keep them satisfied. A student with a big appetite will end up spending more in the long run if they choose First-Year Limited. However, on the flip side, First-Year Max may be excessive for a student who typically eats smaller portions. Select the right fit from three dining plan options.

First-Year Max

Designed for students who really like to eat, First-Year Max is the most robust plan. This dining plan keeps a student with a large appetite fueled for success.

The dining plan with the most, the First-Year Max costs $7,400 and offers $2,208* a quarter to spend on food. That breaks down to about $28 per day, seven days a week or $38 per day, five days a week.

First-Year Plus

Not everyone needs, or has the time for, three meals a day, and for those students there is First-Year Plus. Striking a great balance between special features and cost efficiency, this plan is enough to keep a student with an average appetite fueled for success.

This dining plan costs $6,743 and offers students $1,939* to spend on food each quarter. That breaks down into about $24 per day, seven days a week or $33 per day, five days a week.

They will eat a full meal* twice a day, five days a week.
They enjoy an occasional treat (Starbucks, Jamba, etc.).
Tip: Value menu items are a go-to for this dining plan to help properly budget dining dollars.

First-Year Limited

For those with a lighter appetite, there is the First-Year Limited. This plan is a good fit for a student who is happy eating one meal a day, or simply grazing and will eat off campus often.

This dining plan costs $6,185 and offers $1,653* each quarter to spend on food. That breaks down into about $20 per day, seven days a week or $28 per day, five days a week.

They have a lighter appetite and like to graze throughout the day.
They will eat a full meal** once a day, five days a week.
They will eat off campus often.
Tip: Value menu items are a go-to for this dining plan to help properly budget dining dollars.

*An additional $200 will be included before Fall Quarter to be used for WOW and Move In.

**Full meal means any combination of food items that make a major contribution to one’s total diet. The average cost of a full meal is $15.

Plan Benefits

Benefit	First-Year Max	First-Year Plus	First-Year Limited
Bonus Dining Dollars	450	300	–
Reusable Cal Poly Tumbler with 100 fills preloaded	✅	✅	✅
Remaining dining dollars roll over quarter to quarter	✅	✅	✅
At year end, remaining dining dollars roll over to the next academic year with the purchase of a 2024-25 community plan by June 20, 2024	✅	✅	✅
$200 dining cost for move-in and Week of Welcome (WOW)	✅	✅	✅
Total Cost	$7,400	$6,743	$6,185

How The Dining Plans Work

At the beginning of each quarter, the specific amount of Dining Dollars is added to the student’s Poly Card (Cal Poly I.D.). The amount is determined by the chosen dining plan. Then the student simply uses their Poly Card like a debit card at any Campus Dining venue, dollar-for-dollar. This system gives students the liberty to eat what they want, when they want.

Switching Dining Plans

Campus Dining Plans are convenient, flexible and easy to use. The only hard part is picking the dining plan that is right for the student. To make the decision stress free, students are allowed to make a one-time switch in dining plans during the middle of fall quarter from Oct. 25 through Nov. 13, 2023. Their new choice will go into effect the following winter quarter.

Pricing

Wrapped in each dining plans are a number of factors and costs that go into running a program that supports first-year students and their varied locations, schedules, likes and dislikes, and nutrition requirements. To this end, all dining plans include a $1,026 operational fee that helps cover the non-food operating costs that go into serving 20,000 meals a day at more than 30 venues and employing 1,500 students.

Payment Schedule

Choose to make one annual payment, three quarterly payments or nine monthly payments with the first payment due Sept. 1, 2023, and the last one due May 1, 2024. Initial payment deposits will be applied when fall charges are placed. Go to Portal

2023-24 Installment Chart

	First-Year Limited	First-Year Plus	First-Year Max
Total Fall Charges	2,195	2,381	2,600
Installment Due Dates
9/1/23	865	927	1,000
9/1/23 (If $1,000 deposit was made)	–	–	–
10/1/23	665	727	800
10/1/23 (If $1,000 deposit was made)	530	654	800
11/1/22	665	727	800
11/1/23 (If $1,000 deposit was made)	665	727	800

Total Winter Charges	1,995	2,181	2,400
Installment Due Dates
12/1/23	665	727	800
1/1/24	665	727	800
2/1/24	665	727	800

Total Spring Charges	1,995	2,181	2,400
Installment Due Dates
3/1/24	665	727	800
4/1/24	665	727	800
5/1/24	665	727	800

Total Academic Year	6,185	6,743	7,400

What You Need To Know

All first-year students living in campus housing are required to have a dining plan for the entire academic year. This gives students the convenience of having meals easily accessible so they can focus on their academics and student life.

Dining Dollars can be used at any Campus Dining venue.
Each dining plan includes an $1,026 operational fee that helps cover the non-food operating costs that go into serving 20,000 meals a day at more than 30 venues and employing 1,500 students. This includes equipment and facility maintenance.
Dining Dollars roll over to the next quarter, however, funds remaining at the end of the spring quarter are forfeited, unless a Community Dining Plan is purchased and maintained for the 2024-25 academic year by June 20, 2024. These Community Dining Plans start as low as $275 for the year.
Students with dietary restrictions should review their dining plan food options at calpolydining.com to determine if their dietary needs can be met prior to submitting their initial payment registration for the Housing and Dining License. Please feel free to reach out to the Campus Dining registered dietitian at wellness@calpoly.edu with specific questions.
If a student runs out of Dining Dollars before the quarter is over, they can put funds on a Campus Express account, purchase a Community Dining Plan, or simply use a credit/debit card at any Campus Dining venue.

Additional terms and conditions may be found in the Housing and Dining License Agreement Terms and Conditions 2023-2024.