ELFI’s 2025-2026 Meal Plan Study

THE COST OF SCHOOL MEAL PLANS IN 2025

Are College Students Getting Their Money’s Worth?

Much of the conversation about higher education costs focuses on tuition, but college tuition makes up just a slice of the total cost of attendance. Other expenses, including housing, transportation, textbooks and food, can add thousands to the overall cost.

Many publications list “skip the meal plan” as a way to save money in college. But that advice isn’t always realistic. The overwhelming majority of schools require all first-year resident students to have a meal plan, and many require resident students to have a meal plan, regardless of their year.

Because meal plans are usually mandatory, there are fewer ways for students to cut their expenses. As a result, they may need to turn to other sources of financial aid, including student loans, to cover their total cost of attendance.

STUDY HIGHLIGHTS:

• On average, students pay $5,656 per year for college meal plans.
• The overwhelming majority — 98% — of schools required first-year students to purchase a meal plan.
• Private schools tend to have more expensive plans; on average private school meal plans cost 22% more than public school meal plans.

Meal Plan Requirements

Meal plans are typically required for resident students, especially for first-year entrants. Of the 150 schools evaluated, only three — the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — did not require first-year students to enroll in a meal plan.

Meal Plan Costs

First-year students are typically required to enroll in a meal plan that provides at least three meals per day during the academic year. The cost can be significant; according to The Hechinger Report, the average cost of a meal plan was $4,500 in 2017.

However, we found that the cost has significantly increased over the past eight years. As of the 2025-2026 academic year, the average cost of the lowest cost plan for first-year students at all colleges and universities was $5,656, an increase of about 26% before adjusting for inflation.

Least Expensive Meal Plan Options

Pricing varied significantly by university. The cheapest was Oregon State University at just $3,000 per academic year — about 47% less than the average for all schools. By contrast, the University of Richmond was the most expensive at $8,640 per academic year.

Most Expensive Meal Plan Options

All five of the schools with the most expensive plans were private institutions. Universities with the highest-cost required plans started at about $8,600 per academic year. At these schools, these plans would add between $34,400 to $41,200 to a student’s total education cost over four years.

The school with the most expensive plans was the University of Richmond. Its lowest-cost plan was $9,720 per academic year, and it had other options that cost over $10,000 per year.

College Meal Plans vs. At-Home Meals

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) releases recommended food plans at different spending levels: thrifty, low-cost, moderate-cost and liberal. These plans are designed to show the costs of healthy diets using home-prepared foods, and they’re used by government agencies and courts to determine benefits and payments.

For example, the thrifty food plan is the standard for food stamp allotments, bankruptcy courts use the low-cost plan to determine how much of the bankruptcy applicant’s income to allocate to food, and these plans can also affect child support and alimony payments.

For November 2024 — the last available data — these were the average monthly costs of the USDA food plans for adults between the ages of 19 and 50.

When you compare the recommended USDA food plans to the cost of college meal plans, you’ll find that college meal plans are significantly more expensive.

Assuming a college student followed the moderate plan over the course of an academic year — about nine months — a male student loan would spend $3,423.60 on food — about 39% less than the average cost of college meal plans.

A female student following the moderate food plan would spend $3,228.80 on food during the academic year — nearly 49% less than the average cost of college meal plans.