A new roster of participating restaurants has been announced for the rejuvenated Flex Dollars program, a meal plan option that allows students to dine in local eateries occasionally instead of their residential college dining halls.
Au Bon Pain, Broadway Pizza, and Naples Pizza and Restaurant have all been enlisted into the program, which is now in its second year.
Upperclassmen who sign up for the program can eat any 14 meals per week in Yale's dining halls and spend 100 "Flex Dollars" per semester at participating restaurants, at specially equipped vending machines on campus, or at Yale's cash operations, including Durfee Sweet Shoppe and Late Night Lord's. They can use their Flex Dollars to pay for meals, although not alcohol or tips, or to pay for guests' meals in the residential dining halls. By contrast, Yale's "Full Meal" plan provides students with 21 meals per week in campus dining halls.
More than 800 students signed up for the Flex Dollars program when it was first launched in September of 1995, and Dining Halls is once again offering undergraduates the opportunity to switch to the meal plan. Those interested should visit the third floor of the Dining Hall's Accounting Office at 294 Elm St.
"With Au Bon Pain, Broadway Pizza and Naples now on board, we expect that Flex Dollars will be a very popular option among students," says Peter D. Vallone, associate vice president for administration. "After all, one of the main reasons we established the program in the first place was to satisfy students' requests for more diversity in their dining options."
He added that the Flex Dollar operations at Au Bon Pain and Broadway Pizza were already "up and running" and that Naples would be ready to accept Flex Dollars in the next few weeks.