In an effort to improve student satisfaction with Dickinson’s meal plans, Dining Services announced the recent addition of sushi to the Any20 meal plan for all students on campus. Previously, students needed to pay separately for this item, regardless of their meal plan. 

On Monday, September 20, signs were posted throughout  Union Station informing students with the Any 20 meal plan they could now use one of their meal swipes to obtain sushi. However, the posters  also noted how sushi will not be a part of the Any20 Pick 4 value meal plan, where students can get a side, a drink, and a pastry with their meal. 

Errol Huffman, director of dining services at Dickinson College, says that both the Dining Services management team and the Associate Vice President of Campus Operations discussed a variety of solutions to improve the dining experiences of students before resulting in this decision as one of their plans. 

“The desire is to give students something they requested early in the semester after missing deadlines for meal plan changes,” Huffman says. “We hope to improve satisfaction and give students another outlet for the use of their Any20 meal plan.”

Prior to this decision, students on the Any20 meal plan would have to pay out of pocket to get sushi. Students on flex or apartment plans were the only students who could use their meal plan to purchase sushi. 

Huffman says that this is a part of a new project from Dining Services. “We will study the impact as a part of this pilot program.” This program will be run through the end of the semester, then Dining Services will determine if it will “carry forward into the spring semester.”

When asked about financial impacts regarding the sushi on Any20, Huffman says that the product cost is much higher than our regular services as “[sushi] is a retail item from a third-party provider.”

Some students are upset by the switch of sushi to Any20. Katie McQuaid ’22 says “I think Dickinson is trying to deflect from the issues dining services has by offering little things like that. As in, it’s a smokescreen and a strategy to try and get people away from the caf, besides the fact that it just brings more people to the equally busy SNAR (Union Station).”