Dining Services Unveil New Meal Plans for Fall 2025

With the fresh air of the new semester, Fall 2025 brings many changes to the campus community, including the implementation of new meal plan options that allow students to exchange Valentine Dining Hall swipes for Mammoth Bucks (previously known as “AC Dollars”).

New Meal Plan Options

Over the summer, students were given the opportunity to choose between five meal plan options — a significant change to previous years, when every student was automatically enrolled in a plan offering unlimited swipes to Valentine Dining Hall. This option is now known as “Gather Unlimited” and, starting this semester, students are also able to opt into three other new plans: Gather Plus, Gather Select, and Gather Flex, each offering 19, 15, and 10 meal swipes per week, respectively. Off-campus residents have been offered the “Gather Connect” option, with 100 swipes per semester. Freshmen are automatically enrolled in “Gather Unlimited.”

Each plan offers a different number of Mammoth Bucks, which students can use in the Science Center Cafe, the Frost Cafe, the Keefe Mammoth Market, the Amherst College Store, and campus vending machines. The fewer meal swipes a plan offers, the more Mammoth Bucks it provides — $100 for the Gather Unlimited, $200 for the Gather Plus, $250 for the Gather Select, $300 for the Gather Flex, and $400 for the Gather Connect plan. All plans also include five Grab-n-Go swipes per week and eight guest swipes per semester.

Residents of the Humphries House theme community, colloquially known as the Zü — a space designed to promote a “cooperative environment for community-oriented individuals” where residents are responsible for preparing their own meals — are also eligible for a unique dining plan option. In addition to the option of completely opting out of Valentine Dining Hall and receiving a 40% room and board fee refund, students can now choose “The Humphries Meal Plan,” which provides 75 meal swipes per semester, $150 in Mammoth Bucks, and eight guest meal swipes.

According to Dining Services and Operations, fewer than 20% of the student population opted into the new meal plans.

“Low enrollment is not surprising, as this is the first semester launching the new programs. We expect enrollment numbers to increase year over year as the incoming students matriculate,” said the Dining Services Team.

William Kim ’28, who decided to switch to the Gather Plus plan, said that this different meal plan option better fits his needs. “When I saw that the new meal plans were being offered, my mind immediately went back to my own experience. I looked back on my time in my freshman year, and I saw that there was not a single week [when] I actually used all possible meals. You know, breakfast, lunch, and dinner for seven days.”

For students who have the habit of frequently eating off-campus, the unlimited option may not be useful or appealing.

“Almost every single week, I had some kind of extra school commitment, like a dinner out in town with my friends or some kind of missing breakfast or skipping lunch to eat in town or something like that. So that's why the unlimited plan was not really useful for me … The [Gather Plus Plan] was a little bit more in line with my schedule,” added Kim. 

With the exception of the off-campus meal plan, all of the options still cost the same amount, leaving students free to choose the option that best suits their lifestyles and evaluate whether a decrease in meal swipes is worth the increase in AC dollars.

Other Changes to Campus Dining

According to the Dining Services Team, another change implemented in Fall 2025 was a 30-minute restriction on swipe access after entering Val or Grab-n-Go, designed to reduce congestion. As a result, the Dining Services Team has noticed a change in student flow.

“We have noticed a marked difference in the flow at Grab-n-Go and Val during the lunch period, which we believe has led to a better-paced lunch service and more available seating at the lunch hour,” the Dining Services Team wrote in a statement to The Student.

Other changes have also been introduced in the dining facilities, including a new dessert station and an allergen-free area designed to avoid cross-contamination in Valentine Dining Hall, and a new Grab-n-Go system — now called Mammoth on the Go — with cold, ready-to-go entrees.

In a previous interview for The Student, Director of Dining Services, Bill Connor, mentioned plans for a food delivery app in partnership with GrubHub for sick meal orders, which would allow students who are sick to have friends pick up their meals (Connor is currently on leave; Peter Charron is the interim director of dining services). When asked to comment on the status of apps, the Dining Operations Team shared, “We are finalizing the GrubHub launch, and more details will be available shortly. We still anticipate a Fall [2025] launch.”

The Frost Library Cafe and Science Center Cafe have also undergone significant changes, including the adoption of a new service system and new menu items.

“Highlights include authentic Italian pinsa sandwiches, freshly prepared flatbreads, crisp salads,  vibrant Agua Fresca, and a range of crafted coffees — most notably, a favorite, the Dirty Horchata, which blends bold espresso with sweet spice,” the Dining Services Team wrote.

To improve convenience, students now have mobile ordering, kiosks, and pickup cubbies at the cafes. Dining Services shared that these tools are intended to “make the process faster and easier, but also allow our staff to dedicate more time to preparing great food and connecting with the campus community in meaningful ways.”

Looking ahead, students expressed interest in the college allowing Mammoth Bucks to be used at local restaurants in town.

“When I took the Dining Hall meal plan survey last year, I remember there was a question about being able to have some money to spend in the town restaurants and cafes, but I don’t think that’s a part of the meal plan right now. That would be an exciting way to go out to the town and use that money as well,” said Yujin Cha ’28, who is on “The Humphries Meal Plan.”

According to the Dining Operations Team, they are focused on continued improvements and innovation. 

“We are excited to continue building momentum toward the opening of the new Student Center Dining Commons next year. In partnership with Student Activities, we are committed to creating a dining program that is diverse, efficient, and reflective of our community’s needs. This includes enhancing the speed of service, developing engaging partnerships with local vendors, and designing thoughtful, customized menu cycles.”