Meal Plans & Pard Dollars

At Lafayette College, dining is integral to the residential college experience and plays an important role in helping students make connections, form communities, and learn from their food and consumption.

As part of the College’s Connected Communities Program, Lafayette Dining Services provides more than nutritious and appetizing food. The College’s residential dining program, spread across seven different cafés and dining halls, provides social gathering places, opportunities to refuel, and out-of-the-classroom experiences where students are taught about “food service for a sustainable future.”

Lafayette Dining Services works to provide students with a variety of appealing, convenient, and healthy dining options for all palates, dietary restrictions, and allergy sensitivities. Lafayette Dining supports small, local farms in order to offer our campus community incredibly fresh food, made from scratch. That means no processed or canned foods, homemade dressing, and sauces, including soups and stocks. Accomplishing this is a mouthful indeed, but the bottom line is that staff strive to cook delicious food that’s good for students, the animals, the workers, the community, and the Earth — because they’re all connected.

All students are required to have at least the minimum qualifying meal plan for their class year. Meal Plans can be increased above the minimum qualifying plan by logging into MyHousing by Adirondack Solutions, Inc. using your Lafayette ID and password. Full descriptions and fees for the Meal Plans can be found on the Finance & Administration website.

 

The 20-, 14-, 7-, and 5-Meals-Per-Week Plans

Each of these meal plans allows a student to access either of the all-you-care-to-eat campus dining halls (Marquis and Upper Farinon) and, using Meal Exchange, Lower Farinon Commons, Gilbert’s Café, ECO Cafe, and Simon’s Market for the number of times each week specified in the plan name. Meals must be eaten during the designated week and do not carry forward from week to week or semester to semester.

Meal Exchange

Students can enjoy the flexibility of using their meal plan swipes at our retail locations for added convenience and variety. Each location features Meal Exchange combo meals, usually comprised of an entree, side, and beverage. To see how many Meal Exchange swipes your meal plan offers you each week, reference the detailed Meal Plan Options section here.

Here’s a look at when and where to use the Meal Exchange program:

  • Lower Farinon Commons: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Late Night
  • Gilbert’s Café: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
  • Skillman Coffee Shop: Lunch
  • ECO Cafe: Breakfast and Lunch
  • Simon’s Market: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Late Night
  • *Miss Jackson’s Diner: Breakfast and Lunch (privately-owned restaurant, students can use up to 1 swipe per week)

Guest Meals

Each student meal plan includes a number of Guest Meals that can be used to bring family or friends into one of our all-you-care-to-eat dining halls. Unused guest meals do not carry over from semester to semester.

Find out how many guest meals your meal plan includes here.

Pard Dollars

Pard Dollars, which function like debit dollars loaded to your Lafayette ID card, and are great for snacks, drinks, and retail purchases not covered by a Meal Exchange swipe.

There are two types of Pard Dollars:

Meal Plan Pard Dollars: These are included with your meal plan each semester. Unused meal plan Pard Dollars expire at the end of each semester.

Additional Pard Dollars: You can load additional Pard Dollars to your account at any time throughout the semester to make all those coffee and snack purchases quick and easy. These Pard Dollars will rollover from semester-to-semester and year-to-year until you graduate. These funds are also available during college break periods and over the summer.

Additional Pard Dollars can be added to the account online via the Lafayette eAccounts portal.  Students and their benefactors can add Pard Dollars through this service.

Participating Local Merchants

NameLocationPhone
Aman’s Artisan Indian Cuisine336 Northampton Street(610) 573-1823
Big Woody’s Sports Grill1855 Sullivan Trail(610) 252-4442
Billy's Downtown Diner123 S 3rd St(610) 438-3100
Chocodiem325 Northampton Street(610) 829-2722
Colonial Pizza & Spaghetti House136 Spring Garden Street(610) 252-3033
CVS215 Town Center Blvd(610) 250-3650
Deezy's Famous Cheesesteaks176 Stone Hill Dr
(484) 587-0755
Don Juan Mex Grill300 N 3rd Street(610) 438-5661
Giacomo’s Italian Grille700 Cattell Street(610) 438-1945
Gyro Concept 323 Cattell Street(610) 438-1176
Hana Sushi and Teppanyaki 218 Cattell Street(610) 330-0888
Mojo Hill Cafe516 March Street(610) 438-1350
Pearly Baker’s Alehouse11 Centre Square(610) 253-9949
Rod's Dogs325 Northampton Street(484) 548-1646
Scratch325 Northampton Street(610) 814-7774
Sogo Fusion Lounge237 Northampton Street(610) 250-0198
Stoke Coal Fired Pizza1 Lehns Court(610) 829-1400
Tandoor Grill9 North 3rd Street(610) 250-1922
Vinny V's Pizza208 Cattell Street(610) 253-5533

Restrictions:  Even if you meet the legal minimum age, Pard Dollars cannot be used to purchase any alcohol, tobacco products, lottery tickets, money orders, traveler’s checks, or gift cards.

 

Get Involved!

See the Dining Services job listing in Handshake for more information on these opportunities. (Access Handshake from the “Get Student Career Support” section of your my.lafayette.edu portal