UCLA’s meal plan system provides Bruins with access to a variety of dining options: food trucks, dining halls and on-campus restaurants. At the beginning of each school year, students living on the Hill choose between six distinct plans differentiated by amount and flexibility.

Meal plans offer 11, 14 or 19 swipes per week and are further differentiated by two plan types: Premier and Regular. Premier plans allow multiple swipes per meal period with unused swipes rolling over to the following week, while Regular plans have a set number of swipes per week with no rollover.

Lizelle Perez, a second-year psychology student, said there were several factors included in her decision to choose the 14 Premier plan for her first year.

“I chose that one because it was cheaper than 19P (19 Premier), and then I realized that I’m going to be going home on the weekends a lot,” Perez said. “I don’t eat breakfast either.”

Bruins living on the Hill are required to choose a meal plan, which is included in dorm housing costs. When deciding on a plan, Bruins like Perez may consider factors such as their eating habits and cost. For example, the plans vary by price, with the cheapest being 11 Regular – which costs around $5,300 for the 2024-2025 school year – and the most expensive being 19 Premier – which costs around $6,600. Data provided by UCLA Dining indicates that the 14 Premier meal plan is the most popular, with close to 6,000 users for the 2023-2024 school year.

For Bruins who do not live on the Hill, UCLA introduced a pilot off-campus meal plan earlier this year. Provided to 500 students living in the university apartments, this $1,260 per quarter plan offers seven meal swipes a week to be used at dining halls on the Hill. Capacity accommodations will determine if this plan expands and continues into future school years, according to UCLA Housing.

Those who buy either meal plan have access to 10 different dining locations, three of which are non-takeout buffet style.

In winter 2024, The Study at Hedrick was the most popular restaurant, with 23% of all Hill swipes going to it, according to UCLA Dining. In the same time period, 38% of all Hill meal swipes were used between the three residential restaurants, with the other 62% being used at takeout restaurants. The most popular non-takeout dining hall was Bruin Plate with 47% of swipe usage, which fourth-year computer science student Paul Zhang said is his pick for the “dining hall most worth a swipe” because of its healthier offerings.

Apart from the 10 dining locations, UCLA also offers numerous food trucks and ASUCLA restaurants. Previously, to eat at nonresidential dining hall locations, students would have to trade meal swipes at their dorm building’s front desks for either a food truck ticket or an on-campus ASCULA restaurant ticket. However, as of this year, students can directly use swipes to purchase a meal that is $9 or less.

Food trucks, which were introduced to the Hill during the 2021-2022 school year as a response to staffing shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic, quickly gained popularity among students. Zhang said food trucks such as Austyn’s Burger became popular through word of mouth and social platforms.

“It (Austyn’s) was definitely my favorite food truck, and it seemed to be a lot of other people’s favorite food trucks because it was kind of like a special event,” Zhang said. “Every time Austyn’s appeared, … I would drag a friend or two along, and the line would be one or two hours long.”

On top of dining halls and food trucks on the Hill, Bruins with meal plans can access on-campus restaurant services run by ASUCLA.

Christina Manuel, the ASUCLA communications and social media manager, said in a written statement that many factors, including the addition of dorm swipe acceptance, have led to increased traffic at ASUCLA restaurants. In winter quarter, an average of 150,000 swipes were used per month, she added in the statement.

For Perez, ASUCLA restaurants provide dining options close to class. Specifically with the Premier plan, which allows her to use multiple swipes in a meal period, Perez said she can double or triple the $9 value of a single meal swipe whenever she wants. This allows her to eat filling meals at campus restaurants such as Wetzel’s Pretzels, Sambazon Açaí Bowls, Panda Express and Taco Bell.

“Especially because I have those extra swipes, I feel like it (the Premier plan) is more freeing,” Perez said.

Zhang said he felt ambivalent toward on-campus dining because the Regular plan only allows for one swipe to be used per meal period and thus makes it harder to find a reasonable meal from an ASUCLA restaurant without paying out of pocket.

Although students like Zhang already factor in meal swipe value when making everyday dining decisions, a recent statement from UCLA Dining revealed that the value of meal swipes at ASUCLA restaurants is set to be reduced to $4.33. There is no exact timeline for this value reduction, which is set to change when on-campus restaurant staffing reaches pre-pandemic levels, but students have already voiced concerns. While the reduction in value may impact which meal plan students choose – especially those who frequent on-campus restaurants – UCLA Dining said its goal is to restore dining halls to pre-pandemic levels, ultimately reducing the need for outside support from food trucks or ASUCLA restaurants.

“Dining’s focus continues to be working on hiring and onboarding new team members so that we can open all our locations at the level we were at prior to the pandemic,” a UCLA Dining spokesperson said in a written statement.