Policies
Our meal plan policies help ensure an enjoyable dining experience for everyone.
Term of Agreement
- All first- and second-year students living on campus are required to enroll in a meal plan.
- First-Year Students: Auto-enrolled in their school's Premium Plan. No further action is required.
- Second-Year AS&E Students: Required to enroll in one of these three plans: Tufts Premium, 220, or 160.
- Meal plans provide meals for each academic semester. Fall and Spring Meal Plans are sold separately.
- Meal swipes on our plans can't be carried forward from one semester to the next or be converted to JumboCash — so use them up! Check your balance at www.jumbocash.net
- Tufts Dining also offers Winter Session and Summer Session Meal Plans.
- See our Meal Plan Important Dates for start and end dates for our meal plans.
- All scheduled serving days are in accordance with the University academic calendar and are subject to change if the calendar should be revised.
Meal Plan Rules
The following conditions apply.
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- The meal periods are defined as:
- Breakfast: Open-10:59 am
- Lunch: 11:00 am-4:59 pm
- Dinner: 5:00 pm-Close
- Meal Plan holders may use 1 swipe per meal period to bring a guest into one of our dining centers. The guest swipe counts towards your 2 swipe per meal period total.
- Our dining centers are all-you-care-to-eat. Students may take seconds while in the dining center.
- Food selected by each student must be either consumed while in the dining center or taken out in one of our reusable takeout containers. You may not “double dip” by eating while in Dewick or Carm and then taking a second meal as takeout. If you choose to both eat in and take out, you must use two meal swipes to do so.
- Students may take a hand-held cookie, ice cream cone, or whole fruit when leaving the facility.
- Tufts Dining strives to reduce food waste. We request that all patrons take only what they can reasonably eat.
Meal Swipe Equivalencies
A swipe has a cash value –or equivalency (amount depends on the meal period)– that can be used in certain Tufts Dining retail locations. 1 swipe will be deducted from your semester meal swipe total for each equivalency used. Students may use a total of 2 meal swipes/equivalencies per meal period –e.g., 2 meal swipes; or 1 meal swipe + 1 meal equivalency; or 2 meal equivalencies.
- 2022–23 Meal Swipe Equivalencies:
- Breakfast: $7.72
- Lunch: $12.87
- Dinner: $14.59
- Commons Late Night: $12.87
- Meal Swipe Equivalency may be used in these Tufts Dining locations:
- Hodgdon
- Kindlevan Café
- Pax et Lox Glatt Kosher Deli
- SMFA Café
Your ID Card
- You need your Tufts ID card to access Carmichael and Dewick-MacPhie Dining Centers.
- For security, your ID card may not be used by others.
- Meal plan privileges are not transferable.
- Using someone else’s ID or allowing someone to use your ID is prohibited and may result in disciplinary action.
Lost or Stolen ID Cards
If your Tufts ID is lost or stolen, you should immediately:
- contact campus ID card office, 617-627-3692, or
- log in to your JumboCash account and use the designated link to report your card as lost or stolen.
- Reporting a lost or stolen card will block unauthorized JumboCash spending and use of the lost or stolen card. There may be a replacement fee for lost or stolen cards.
- Find more information about ID replacement here.
Penalties and Proration
If you change your meal plan during the semester, your costs for the plan will follow our proration policy and may be subject to penalties. For more information on timing, please review our Important Dates.
When you make changes to your plan, proration for your previous meal plan will go into effect the Saturday of the week the change has been requested. For example, if you submit a change on a Tuesday, your old plan will be in effect until Friday. Charges for the new plan will begin on Saturday and continue through the remainder of the semester. Proration is calculated by the meal.
The penalty for changing plans after the semester deadline is 50% of the difference in cost between the two plans on the effective date of the change if switching to a smaller plan.
Check the Important Dates for the date each semester after which no meal plan refunds or proration is offered.