After piloting the All You Care To Eat (AYCTE) program for three weeks at the Bear’s Den (BD) dining hall, Washington University Dining Services decided to extend the initiative through the end of the academic year. However, during a Student Union (SU) Senate meeting, some senators called for Dining Services to decrease the cost of AYCTE or provide more affordable to-go options during AYCTE hours, Nov 19. 

Raven Lumpkins, the Director of Marketing and Communication with University Services, wrote in an email to Student Life that the program was extended due to “overwhelmingly positive feedback” in the student satisfaction survey. She said that the average student rating of the AYCTE program was a 4 out of 5 stars. 

Dining Services said the AYCTE Pilot Program was initially launched with two goals: to enhance community engagement at BD and to reduce food waste.

Beatrice Augustine is a first-year student who eats at BD for dinner two or three times per week. According to her, community engagement at BD is notably higher.

“Now with All You [Care To] Eat, it’s like everyone is down here at the same time,” Augustine said. “It’s so hard to find a table, and you see everyone.”

However, there is a flip side to having more students at BD during dinner hours. Kaitlyn Torack is another first-year student who is a regular at BD, but she usually gets frozen dinners from Paws & Go instead of the main dining area because it is “less stressful.”

In the first few days of the pilot program, some students said that they were able to eat larger, more diverse meals with the AYCTE meal structure. 

One major concern about AYCTE that students expressed was that the price of a meal is higher on average than BD meals prior to AYCTE. 

“I don’t think it’s reasonable to pay $14. Before I would be paying [an] average of $10 for the same amount of food, I would argue,” Augustine said. “If I don’t go back for a second plate, I’m like, ‘Wow, I just lost money.’”

Torack echoed this sentiment, explaining how the price affects the amount of food she takes.

“I feel like it makes sense that [AYCTE] is more expensive, but also it’s circular — I go in knowing that it’s expensive, so I just take a bunch of stuff, because, might as well,” Torack said.

Based on student feedback so far, Dining Services has also already implemented small changes to the AYCTE program, including changing up the menu options. Augustine said that she appreciated some of these changes. 

“I’m vegetarian, so normally on weekends I just eat the [Incogmeato] chicken tenders or pasta, and it gets so old.” Augustine said. 

Students also now have the option to go through the main dining area only one time with a to-go box instead of dining in and making two trips.

“I don’t think that’s worth it for me, especially because I usually have like 30 minutes to sit in BD and get [my] money’s worth,” Augustine said.

Augustine said that during normal BD hours, she used to take half of her dinner home in a to-go box to eat the next day.

At the SU Senate meeting, sophomore senators Ian Gomez and Emaan Sayied noted that many students opt for to-go options from Paws & Go because AYCTE is structured in a way that mostly benefits students who dine in.

“I personally have felt like, ‘I’m not waiting in this line right now. I’m just going to go to Paws & Go instead and grab my dinner and food,’ which limits my food options that evening,” Gomez said. “​​I think it’s a good program that has its merits, certainly, but I think it also needs a lot of work.”

At the meeting, Executive Director of University Dining Services Greg Minner said that they may add hot meal options at Cherry Tree and some to-go a la carte options during AYCTE hours. Vice Chancellor for University Business Services James Dwyer also said to expect changes to AYCTE during the spring semester.

WashU Assistant Director of Sustainability Cassie Hage is the lead coordinator of the AYCTE food waste assessment. 

“Sustainability staff, interns, and volunteers monitor the dish return area, providing education on composting and clean waste separation,” Hage wrote in an email to Student Life. “Food waste is weighed weekly to identify trends and areas for improvement.”

Hage said that prior to AYCTE, tracking food waste was difficult because students took more food to-go and disposed of it elsewhere. However, she said that dining in usually has environmental benefits. 

Lumpkins explained how Dining Services will evaluate AYCTE’s success with reducing food waste.

“Though it’s still early to conclude on food waste reduction, students can control portions by taking only what they need and returning for more if desired,” Lumkpins wrote. “We’re monitoring food left on plates, the number of returned dishes, and utensil usage. The extension will help us gather comprehensive data on food waste impacts.”

Dining and Sustainability are both still in the process of collecting data through observations of food waste and ongoing student feedback from the satisfaction survey. Lumpkins said that at the end of the pilot program, Dining Services will decide whether or not to implement AYCTE permanently, including at other dining locations on campus. 

“The Bear’s Den has the optimal setup to offer diverse, allergen-friendly, and culturally-specific menus, supported by suitable facilities for this pilot,” Lumpkins wrote. “We’ll use the results from this trial to assess the feasibility of expanding AYCTE elsewhere on campus.”

Augustine said that she has filled out the dining survey and appreciates that Dining Services is adapting to student’s feedback.

“The student body and parents asked for there to be a change made to the dining plan, and they did,” she said. “And they sent out that survey, so hopefully it’s gonna get even better next semester.”

Additional reporting contributed by Tanvi Gorre, Odessa Buell, and Kritika Maheshwari