Meal plan reform expected fall 2027

UC Santa Barbara Housing, Dining & Auxiliary Enterprises is expecting to implement a new meal plan system by the next academic year. The new meal plans are currently in development and will add a form of credits, similar to Gaucho Bucks, that can be used to purchase food at on-campus retail locations, such as Subway and Panda Express.  

Fourth-year mechanical engineering major Eddie Barajas began the initiative three years ago, gaining support from the UCSB Residential Housing Association (RHA) and the Associated Students (A.S.) Senate. Barajas attended a Senate meeting on Oct. 28, requesting its support in the implementation process. He hopes that, with student involvement, it will ensure the meal plan reflects student desires. 

“The reason I came to Senate is like, ‘Ok we got this thing passed,’ but if I disappear for the year then I believe the University would make the meal plan beneficial to the University as opposed to really beneficial to the students,” Barajas said. 

He clarified that he doesn’t believe the University is “evil” but that people often “act on their own self interests.” Barajas plans to set up accountability meetings where administrative dining staff can meet with students and utilize their input. He believes students can push for the meal plan to include all locations on campus and possibly include a 10% discount within its system, similar to other UCs.

He emphasized that including retail locations in the meal plan will help students with dietary restrictions and students who work late hours to have more places to eat. Ultimately, he hopes the new meal plan will eventually encourage the University to add more diverse food options on campus, especially in the University Center, and extend to Isla Vista businesses.

“It’d be great to get some really great options on campus like other universities have,” Barajas said. “And then, maybe if it’s so successful, you could even start introducing the program at select locations in I.V., which other universities have done.” 

Barajas began the initiative during his freshman year after noticing the differences in meal plan systems at other UC campuses. Before attending UCSB,  he had visited UC Los Angeles and was amazed that his friend could buy him Blaze Pizza with a meal swipe. 

“I was like, ‘UCLA is great. It really feels like the administration cares about its students,’” Barajas said. “‘I want to go to UCSB because I think UCSB is going to be UCLA but just somewhere else.’ I get here, I get my meal plan and I’m like, ‘Holy shit, this is something completely different.’”

Almost all UC campuses have a system of dining dollars embedded into their meal plans with UCSB being one of the exceptions. These campuses also feature more university-owned and retail restaurants for students to eat at. 

During the time Barajas was advocating for the reform, he spoke with the UC Riverside Director of Residential Dining Cedric Martin about the reform. Martin helped Barajas modify his plan based on what would work well for UCSB and get another meeting with UCSB Housing, Dining & Auxiliary Enterprise (HDAE). 

Despite this, Barajas’ efforts were still “shut down,” based on the HDAE’s belief that students wouldn’t be interested in a system like this. He explained that he had to “somehow prove that students want this,” which led him to the A.S. Senate; even with its support, Barajas said, “HDAE didn’t really care about A.S. Senate, but what they did care about was RHA.” 

The RHA guided Barajas’ vision by highlighting the meal plan reformation’s potential conflict with CalFresh benefits; for students to be eligible for benefits, their meal plan cannot exceed 10 meal swipes. They were able to work with UCSB’s Basic Needs to include a version of the new meal plan that wouldn’t affect student’s eligibility for CalFresh. He highlighted that other UCs have systems in place that don’t exclude students with Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards.

“The last thing most students want is for ‘Eddie’s lunatic new meal plan’ to prevent them from using EBT, right?” Barajas said. “It’s a very helpful resource, and a lot of students — I believe a quarter of students — at this university are on EBT.” 

With the meal plan reform being backed by the Senate and RHA, Barajas was able to survey students on their opinions of the plan, which had almost completely positive results, and present it to the HDAE. 

Although he will have graduated by the time the meal plan is implemented, he hopes students will be enthusiastic about it even if they’re in the same position as him. 

“A lot of us are not gonna feel the fruits of our labor — I mean, for me, I’ve been working on this for four years, and the plan’s going to be implemented after I leave,” Barajas said. “But I want students to feel excited to know that everyone in the future is going to have the meal plan that we all deserved when we came in.” 

A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the Nov. 12 print edition of the Daily Nexus.