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“Don’t even start,” he warns, because once equivalencies are in place, it becomes nearly impossible to reverse the damage.

Anonymous, General Manager, Dining Services

In my 35 years of strategic planning and food service consulting experience in higher education dining, I’ve seen just about every model and supposed “innovation” in meal plans. One of the most misused and misunderstood mechanisms of all is the implementation of meal equivalences.

While it may have begun as a practical convenience, allowing students to use a meal swipe for a retail combo meal instead of dining in an all-you-care-to-eat (AYCTE) facility, the evolution of this concept has veered into troubling territory. Today, the widespread promotion and reliance on meal equivalencies is no longer a student benefit.

In fact, it has become an insidious incentive, one that is often framed as providing more convenience and value to students; meanwhile, food service operators benefit financially for discouraging students from using the AYCTE dining halls and downgrading the overall value of their meal plan.

And colleges and universities are often complicit, whether by oversight, contract design, or a lack of transparent data analysis.

Let’s break it down.

What Is a Meal Equivalency?

A meal equivalency allows a student to convert a traditional dining swipe into an alternative food transaction outside of the dining hall, usually at participating retail locations across campus. But there’s more than one type of equivalency, and both forms have the same result: less value for the student, more margin for the operator.

Two Faces of Meal Equivalency: Dollar-Based vs. Pre-Determined Combos

Meal equivalencies generally take one of two forms:

1. Dollar-Based Equivalency – The student is given a fixed dollar amount (typically between $6.50 and $9.00) to spend at designated retail locations. If their selected items exceed that value, they pay the difference out-of-pocket, often using declining balance or personal funds. If they spend less, the remaining value is forfeited. Either way, the student rarely captures the full value of what they paid for when purchasing the meal plan.
2. Pre-Determined Combo Equivalency – Sometimes presented as a “Pick 3” or “Pick 4” meal (e.g., entrée + side + beverage + dessert), this structure offers a limited set of bundled options. While it may appear more generous than a dollar cap, the selections are often tightly controlled by the operator: limited variety, prepackaged items, and restricted availability during off-peak periods. Nutritional quality and freshness may also suffer.

In both models, the student is systematically steered away from the full value and experience of the AYCTE dining hall, which is where community-building, customization, and variety and value thrive.

The Financial Shell Game

Here’s the basic structure most universities don’t see, or choose not to scrutinize closely:

• An AYCTE dining hall meal could cost the operator approximately $10.50–$14.00 per meal to produce (inclusive of food, labor, utilities, etc.).
• That same student, using a swipe as an equivalency at a branded or in-house retail location, receives a capped value of around $7.00–$8.50.
• The operator pockets the difference.

Multiply this practice across thousands of daily transactions and hundreds of thousands of equivalency swipes over a semester, and you begin to see the benefit of it, from the operator’s point of view:

Equivalency masked as value.

They require fewer staff, less labor, lower food cost and faster throughput, all appealing from the surface. Leading the university and students alike to believe they are getting increased value; however, after experiencing how quickly their declining balance runs dry and how limited their options truly are, students start to realize they are receiving less value and will often try to opt out of the meal plan, leaving administrators confused and frustrated.

The Hidden Rebate Windfall

This rebate structure provides yet another layer of financial gain for operators, and it’s often hidden in the food cost math.

On average, the cost of goods sold (COGS) is higher in retail food locations, coffee shops, and convenience stores where meal equivalencies are accepted. Individually packaged items, bottled beverages, and name-brand grab-and-go meals cost more than the batch-prepared, scratch-cooked meals served in AYCTE dining halls. Yet operators often promote these higher-COGS venues for equivalency usage.

Why? Because total purchasing volume through broadline distributors and food manufacturers increases, it triggers larger rebate checks on the back end.

Operators receive financial rebates and incentives from their supply chain partners based on the total dollar amount of food purchased, not just the volume. So, while COGS may rise in retail, the operator benefits from:

• Higher per-transaction revenue,
• Lower labor costs, and
• Increased rebates based on total dollars spent.

In short:

The higher the retail food cost, the bigger the rebate payout to the operator.

Meanwhile, the AYCTE dining program, with its potential for efficiency, scale, and community impact, gets hollowed out, because it doesn’t offer the same rebate-rich environment.

The Insidious Sabotage of Residential Dining

What begins as a seemingly harmless convenience, letting students use meal equivalencies to grab a burger or salad outside the dining hall, can quickly turn into something far more insidious.

We’ve seen it time and again: operators subtly and strategically limit the hours, menus, or availability of popular items in the AYCTE dining halls, while pushing those same items to retail venues tied to equivalency swipes.

The result? Students are quietly funneled into using their swipes in retail, not because it’s more convenient, but because it’s the only place they can get the food they actually want, when they actually want it. Some common examples include:

• Chicken tenders, quesadillas, or smoothies? They’re available, but only at the retail grill, where the equivalency cap ensures you’re getting less value than you paid for.
• Extended hours in retail: The dining hall is closed, but the branded concept across campus is open until 11 PM, conveniently ready to absorb your equivalency.

This creates a system where students are encouraged to extract less value from their plan in exchange for perceived convenience.

This strategy detracts from the overall value of the residential dining program. It can reduce perceived value, lower student satisfaction, and weaken the communal dining experience, and over time diminishes the very purpose of a centralized residential dining model at risk.

Who Really Loses?

Let’s be clear: Students lose. Parents lose. Universities lose.

Students are led to believe they’re gaining flexibility and convenience through meal equivalencies, but the reality is far more costly.

Yes, students may still get the food they want. Still, it’s delivered through a restricted system: limited combo meals, capped values, and often only available during narrow operating windows. Worse, if their cravings exceed the equivalency cap, and they usually do, they’re forced to spend additional declining balance dollars or out-of-pocket cash just to make up the difference; all in addition to what they are paying for the cost of a meal plan.

Eventually, many students do the math. They realize that the food they want isn’t accessible without paying extra, the dining hall experience feels subpar or inconvenient, and their supposed flexibility comes with too many strings attached. The result? They disengage from the on-campus program altogether and look off-campus to meet their food and housing needs, a choice that drains dining and housing participation, undermines the institution’s investment in its program, and weakens the campus community at its core.

Parents, especially those footing the bill, become disillusioned. They question why they’re paying for a plan that underdelivers. They also wonder why they need to add money to a meal plan or contribute more money to purchase food, beyond the plan’s cost, and they complain, rightfully so.

Universities lose the social cohesion that dining programs are meant to cultivate. Dining halls are one of the most powerful tools to build community, foster friendships, and support emotional well-being, especially in the first 6 weeks of the semester, the most critical window for student retention. When those dining halls are empty and students eat alone from retail bags, the institution’s investment in student life is squandered.

The Contractual Blind Spot

Many dining contracts fail to track or report equivalency usage with precision. They don’t require disaggregated data. They don’t measure cost/value trade-offs. And in some cases, they inadvertently reward the operator for high equivalency volume because it reduces their cost of goods sold and improves profitability.

This is a textbook insidious incentive, one that shifts control away from student-centered service and toward operator-centered financial engineering.

How We Fix It

If you’re a university leader, VP of Finance, Director of Auxiliaries, or business officer, it’s time to stop treating meal equivalencies as the solution and start interrogating the system.

Six steps to realign incentives with student outcomes:

1. Eliminate or Cap Equivalency Usage: Limit to 1–2 per week unless justified by student need or ADA compliance.
2. Ensure Value Parity: If a student pays $13 per meal, the equivalency should reflect $13 in usable value, not $7.50.
3. Demand Transparency: Require weekly reporting from the operating team: equivalency usage, average transaction value, dining hall participation, and student satisfaction.
4. Monitor Menu Engineering: Audit menus and hours to ensure operators aren’t limiting popular items in the AYCTE dining hall to drive equivalency usage.
5. Restructure Contracts: Eliminate clauses that reward operators for increased retail throughput or reduced dining hall participation.
6. Re-center Dining Halls: Promote Anytime Dining venues as hubs of connection, wellness, and community, not just buffet lines.

Final Thoughts

Meal equivalencies, when used sparingly and responsibly, offer flexibility. But when operators are financially incentivized to divert students from the heart of your dining program, and students are led into accepting less value for more money, you don’t have a dining strategy. You have a value extraction scheme.

The real goal isn’t feeding students cheaply; it’s fostering human connection and helping them connect and belong.

And students don’t form lasting friendships over retail bags and takeout containers.

They form them in dining halls when the experience is worthy of their time, trust, and tuition.

If you want to fix your retention, grow enrollment, and rebuild student satisfaction, start by removing the insidious incentives that quietly erode your campus dining program from within.

Across higher education, the default response to retention and housing challenges is the same: build more housing.

But let’s be brutally honest; housing doesn’t guarantee retention.

You can spend $300 million for 1,400 new beds and still watch sophomore retention hover at 65–75%, occupancy slip, and tuition revenue leak out the door.

Meanwhile, a $30 million Next Generation Residential & Retail Anytime Dining investment, which accounts for just 10% of the cost of new housing, can generate a measurable, retention-driven ROI in 3–5 years.

Let’s unpack why.

Beds Don’t Create Belonging. Next-Gen Anytime Dining Does.

Students don’t drop out solely because the dorms are outdated. They leave because they don’t feel like they belong. The more successful first-year students are at creating and establishing new friendship networks, most especially within their first 45 days, the more likely they are to return as sophomores.

The critical first-year retention window isn’t about where they sleep. It’s about where they feel at home.

For a new student, the dining hall is not the third space; it’s the first space. It’s the kitchen table, the living room, the campus social hub rolled into one.

When dining options are limited, inconvenient, or low-value, students tend to disengage. This could look like:

• Eating alone or off-campus.
• Isolating themselves in their dorm rooms.
• Failing to form meaningful friendships.
• Feeling disconnected and unsupported.

Disconnected first-year students don’t persist. And disconnected second-year students are unlikely to re-enroll don’t stay in your housing.

What $30M Buys in Next Gen Anytime Dining

A PKC-designed Next Generation Anytime Dining Food Hall isn’t just about nicer finishes. It’s a retention engine designed with SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ to foster belonging. Key Features of this approach include:

Extended Hours & Late-Night Dining
Students live on a 24/7 clock. Flexible hours in dining venues keep them on campus and connected.

Predictable, Crave-able Menus
No more “lite lunch” from 2p–5p or barren late-night counters. Every meal is predictable, consistent, and of high value.

Integrated Retail & Meal Plan Flexibility
Students can use their meal dollars across residential and retail dining seamlessly, with more value and higher participation.

Spaces Designed for Connection
Shared tables, micro social zones, and intentional programming create organic opportunities to meet and form long-lasting connections.

Culinary Diversity & Wellness
Plant-forward stations, allergen-safe areas, and global cuisines cater to students’ diverse needs.

Technology-Driven Convenience
Mobile ordering, predictive menus, and data analytics improve satisfaction while controlling costs.

This isn’t just food. It’s belonging by design, and that’s what keeps students on campus.

The ROI: NextGen Anytime Dining vs. Housing

Here’s the stark reality:

• A $300M housing project adds beds but doesn’t address why students leave. You’re still gambling on retention you haven’t fixed.
• A $30 million dining investment directly addresses the root cause, social disconnection, and improves retention for every student, every day.

What happens when retention increases by just 5%?

• If 100 more students stay each year, that’s $3M in annual tuition and fee revenue retained.
• Over 4 years, that’s $12M from only 100 students.
• Scale to 200–300 additional retained students, and your dining investment pays for itself in 3–5 years.

Meanwhile, your $300M housing project? It will take 20–25 years to break even, provided you maintain 100% occupancy.

Students Remember Belonging, Not Buildings

Ask a second-year student why they stayed.
You won’t hear:
“Because my dorm was new.”

You’ll hear:
“I met my best friends at a late-night breakfast.”
“The dining hall felt like home.”
“I felt like I belonged here.”

Housing provides beds.
Dining creates belonging.

And belonging is the single strongest predictor of retention, persistence, and housing occupancy.

Case Study Snapshot

• Campus A invested $0.00 capital in Next Gen Anytime Dining crafted through the lens of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™. Within two years, housing occupancy increased by 14%, meal plan participation reached 75%, and niche.com rated the University’s campus dining as the number one campus dining program in the state of New Jersey.
• Campus B built a $280M residence hall without dining improvements. Sophomore retention remained flat at 68%, and new housing filled only by cannibalizing older residence halls.

The difference? One campus focused on transforming dining as a catalyst for human connection using the Porter Principles of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™. The other just built more beds.

The Strategic Path Forward

With the enrollment cliff looming in 2026, you can’t afford decades-long bets. You need 3–5-year payback strategies that drive measurable retention and housing results now.

That’s exactly what PKC Next Gen Residential and Retail Residential Dining delivers. Key outcomes reported by our clients include:

• Improved retention and persistence within months
• Increase in housing occupancy without adding a single new bed
• Enrollment stability and auxiliary revenue

All for 10% of the cost of new housing.

The Final Question

Before you approve another $300M housing project, ask yourself:

What actually keeps students enrolled, beds, or belonging?

We strongly believe the answer is belonging. If you agree, then suddenly, your $30M dining investment pays for itself in 3-5 years, while your $300M housing project is still decades away from breaking even.

In the high-stakes world of campus dining, there’s a silent MVP that doesn’t get nearly the strategic credit it deserves: French fries.

Yes, humble, golden, crispy, salty fries.

They may not be a protein, but they hold more influence over student behavior, traffic patterns, and dining satisfaction than many menu items combined. If you think fries are just a side, think again.

When consistently hot, crispy, and well-seasoned, French fries become the unsung hero of the dining experience, turning ordinary meals into rituals, quick lunches into cravings, and first-time visitors into regulars.

This blog breaks down why fries matter, how they function as a core pillar of crave ability, and why they deserve to be strategically featured and flawlessly executed in every lunch and dinner service on campus.

Fries Are the Anchor of the Craveable Combo

Whether it’s chicken tenders, burgers, wraps, or sandwiches, fries are the one item students expect to complete the meal. Without them, something feels missing, no matter how strong your protein lineup is.

A cheeseburger without fries is just a sandwich.

Chicken tenders without fries feel like cafeteria austerity.

Fries offer balance and indulgence, texture and familiarity. They’re more than a starch, they’re a crunchy, golden symbol of satisfaction.

When surveyed, over 84% of Gen Z students said that if given the choice, they’d add fries to their meal every time.

Fries Drive Satisfaction and Return Traffic

At PKC, we’ve reviewed hundreds of thousands of student survey responses, mystery shop reports, and dining satisfaction data points. One trend is crystal clear:

Students remember good fries. They return for great fries.

And when fries are bad, soggy, cold, under-seasoned, or inconsistently available, they talk about it. Loudly.

Fries Are a Predictability Anchor

In dining programs that rotate menus daily or weekly, one of the top student frustrations is unpredictability. When students don’t know what’s being served or whether their favorite items will be available, they disengage.

Fries are different. They’re predictable, safe, and emotionally consistent.

Students crave routine, especially in the chaos of college life. When they know they can always get crispy fries with their meal, you’ve created an emotional anchor. This reliability encourages them to return, build a routine, and form social rituals around meals.

Crave ability Is About Texture, Salt, and Satisfaction.

There’s a reason French fries show up on 93% of quick-service menus in America (Datassential 2024): they check every box of sensory satisfaction.

What makes fries crave-able?

• Crunchy texture on the outside, soft on the inside
• Salt and fat, the biochemical building blocks of flavor addiction
• Temperature contrast, served hot and fresh
• Customizability, dipping sauces, seasoning blends, loaded fry options

This combo hits the dopamine triggers that make students want to come back again and again. You could build an entire late-night program around fries alone, and many campuses do.

Fries Are a Competitive Equalizer vs. Off-Campus Options

Students are constantly comparing their on-campus dining options to those available off campus, including Shake Shack, Chick-fil-A, Five Guys, and Raising Cane’s. The one thing all those brands do exceptionally well? Fries.

If your on-campus fries are limp, under-salted, or inconsistently available, you’re practically pushing students toward off-campus spending.

Conversely, when your fries are hot, crave-able, and visible, students associate that with value. A meal swipe that includes fresh fries feels like a better deal than one with rice and carrots, even if the nutritional value is lower.

Fries Boost Meal Plan ROI

Let’s talk business. From an operator’s perspective, fries are a high-margin item that:

• Extend the value perception of combo meals
• Offer excellent yield and low spoilage
• Are easy to prep and batch
• Can be held successfully under heat if managed right

If you pair fries with a strong protein strategy (e.g., grilled chicken, smash burgers, spicy tofu), you get:

• Higher participation
• Better check value perception
• Greater throughput and line speed

And with simple upgrades, fries become a differentiator:

Low-labor fry enhancements:

• Garlic-parm dusting
• Cajun or ranch seasoning
• “Fry of the Day” feature with rotating toppings
• Loaded fry bars (cheese, bacon, chili, plant-based crumble)
• Unique sauces (sriracha mayo, chipotle ketchup, avocado ranch)

Fries Require Precision, Not Complexity

Let’s be clear: great fries aren’t about complexity. They’re about discipline.

3 Rules for Execution:

1. Serve hot – Use fry holding bins and batch in small quantities to avoid soggy piles.
2. Season consistently – Salt while hot; consider house seasoning blends.
3. Display and market – Students eat with their eyes. Make fries visible and desirable.

If fries are hidden behind the station, under a dome, or lumped into a buffet line, they lose appeal.

SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ Perspective: Fries Build Community

At PKC, we emphasize SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, designing dining programs to foster connection, routine, and human interaction.

Fries are social food:

• Easy to share
• Fun to dip
• Always a conversation starter

From late-night study sessions to quick friend meetups, fries become the centerpiece of shared dining rituals. They’re the most democratic food on campus; everyone loves fries.

They may not be the healthiest item on the plate, but they spark happiness, which fuels engagement, and that’s a core ingredient in any successful dining program.

Final Recommendation: Make Fries a Daily Standard

If you want to build loyalty, drive participation, and meet Gen Z where they are, you must offer fries every lunch and dinner and do them well.

Fries should never be a surprise. They should be an expectation.

Final Thought: Fries Are Small, But Their Impact Is Huge

They may only take up a quarter of the tray, but fries punch way above their weight class when it comes to crave ability, satisfaction, and meal plan value.

Fries matter.

Not because they’re trendy.

Not because they’re healthy.

But because they deliver on something every student is looking for: a moment of comfort, crunch, and connection.

Don’t Be Fooled by the Wrapping and a New Meal Plan Label, A 1970s Dining Model in a 2025 Facility with All Access Meal Plans

In the 2025 report Making Connections: Student Life by Ayers Saint Gross, one truth is crystal clear: modern campus design must center around connection. But while institutions are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new housing and tens of millions more into sleek, state-of-the-art dining facilities, one critical question is often left unasked:

Are we still running a 1970s dining model inside a 2025 building?

At Porter Khouw Consulting, we’ve worked with over 400 colleges and universities across all 50 states, throughout Canada, and the United Kingdom. From that experience, one insight has become undeniable:

An outdated dining program will quietly undermine even the most ambitious housing and dining facilities investment.

Dining Isn’t a Service, It’s the Social Epicenter

We pioneered SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ as a guiding principle to our work, to reframe how campus leaders think about dining. It’s not just a space to eat, it’s the campus equivalent of our kitchens at home. A place of comfort, connection, and emotional grounding.

This belief led us to develop PKC NEXT-GEN, a transformational model that turns dining into a strategic engine for student retention, emotional well-being, and housing occupancy. PKC NEXT-GEN makes campuses “stickier” by strengthening the core of student life: connection.

Don’t Be Fooled by the Wrapping: A 1970s Dining Model in a 2025 Facility

Colleges and universities are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new housing and tens of millions more into sleek, state-of-the-art dining facilities. But behind the stainless steel, reclaimed wood, and Instagram-worthy interiors, many are still running a 1970s dining model inside a 2025 building.

This isn’t innovation, it’s optical progress masking operational stagnation.

The move to All Access Meal Plans is often positioned as revolutionary. But don’t be fooled. An All Access Meal Plan is just one leg of a four-legged student value proposition, and when the other three legs (menu variety & selection by day part, predictability and consistency of menu items and hours of operation) are flawed, the experience is hobbled.

All Access is too often undermined by:

• Limited hours of operation
• A lack of predictable and consistent menu offerings
• Light or restricted meal periods with reduced menu variety
• Meal equivalencies that devalue meal plans and the residential dining experience
• Declining balance that subsidizes on-campus retail and dilutes, not strengthens, richer levels of student engagement and community building through dining

These outdated strategies, rooted in transactional thinking from the 1970s, were designed for cost control, not for connection, inclusion, or emotional well-being. And today’s students can feel the disconnect.

They disengage. They skip meals. They go off-campus. They disconnect from the very community your housing and dining investments were meant to cultivate.

PKC NEXT-GEN replaces these flawed legacy systems with a student-centered model built on flexibility, consistency, and SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, making dining the true social engine of your campus.

The First 45 Days Matter Most

Our research confirms what many student life professionals already know: the first 45 days on campus are a critical window of opportunity. That’s when students form social bonds, build routines, and decide whether they feel like they belong.

Residential facilities provide shelter, but dining facilities foster social interaction. If meal plans are restrictive, food is subpar, or hours are inconvenient, students won’t gather. And if they don’t gather, they don’t connect. And if they don’t connect, they don’t stay.

PKC NEXT-GEN reverses this trend. By designing dining programs that align with student behavior, support emotional well-being, and foster daily social rituals, we help institutions convert their housing investment into actual community.

SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ in Action

You can build stunning residence halls and program endless events, but if students don’t have a place to casually and comfortably connect multiple times a day, engagement falters.

Dining is the ritual. Dining is the rhythm. Dining, crafted through the lens of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, is the epicenter and nexus of student engagement on a daily basis.

When implemented well, PKC NEXT-GEN becomes the foundation for:

• 3 to 15 percent increases in fall-to-fall student retention
• Higher housing occupancy rates
• Improved mental health and wellness metrics
• Stronger friendship networks
• Higher average GPAs

This isn’t theory, it’s measurable impact across real campuses.

Anytime Dining = Anytime Belonging

A core component of PKC NEXT-GEN is Anytime Dining:

Unlimited access, takeout flexibility, extended hours, and diverse food stations that serve students on their time, not institutional schedules.

Dining should feel like freedom, not a restriction. Students thrive when they can flow naturally from classes to meals to study to social interaction, without worrying about swipe limits or closing times.

When dining is that seamless, students stay on campus, linger longer, and feel like they belong.

Design and Programming Go Hand in Hand

PKC NEXT-GEN doesn’t stop at operations. It also transforms physical spaces into social catalysts:

• Natural light, clear sightlines, and open kitchens
• Quiet zones for neurodiverse students
• Inclusive seating for small groups and large gatherings
• Integrated technology for mobile ordering and feedback
• Events that bring students together over food

Dining halls should be places students want to be, not places they endure.

A Strategic Blind Spot in Campus Master Planning

Too many institutions are pouring hundreds of millions into new buildings while leaving their dining philosophy stuck in the past. Beautiful facilities with old-school service models are a flawed combination.

If you’re spending $400 million, $600 million, or $800 million on new housing and dining complexes but still operating with a traditional food court or outdated swipe plan, you’ve created a disconnect that students feel immediately.

Dining is not a cafeteria service. It is mission-critical infrastructure for retention, engagement, and campus culture.

Don’t Be Fooled by the Wrapping and a New Meal Plan Label, A 1970’s Dining Model in a 2025 Facility with All Access Meal Plans.

You can’t build 21st-century student life on a 20th-century dining model.

Dining must be modernized in tandem with facilities, with a strategic lens focused on human connection, emotional well-being, and social capital. That’s what PKC NEXT-GEN delivers. That’s what SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ demands.

If you want your next capital investment to truly transform your campus, start not just with where students sleep, but where they connect.

After three decades in foodservice design consulting, I’ve witnessed the dramatic evolution of retail environments from simple transactional spaces to immersive brand experiences. The recently completed Perry Place at Virginia Tech’s Hitt Hall perfectly exemplifies how modern retail design principles can transform utilitarian dining into destination experiences that resonate deeply with consumers.

The Foundation: Understanding Your Audience

The most successful retail designs begin with a fundamental understanding of the end user. At Perry Place, Virginia Tech Dining Services didn’t just assume they knew what students wanted; they brought them directly into the design process. This collaborative approach, where students sat alongside designers and administrators during brand development sessions, exemplifies the first principle of effective retail design: authentic customer engagement.

The result speaks volumes. Students requested all-day breakfast, leading to the creation of Solarex Diner. They wanted Mediterranean options, inspiring Fresh & Feta. They craved authentic barbecue, birthing the wildly popular Smoke concept that consistently draws “lines a mile long” for its Texas-Kansas City hybrid barbecue offerings. When you design with rather than for your audience, authenticity becomes the natural byproduct.

Creating Cohesive Diversity

One of the most challenging aspects of multi-concept retail design is maintaining individual brand identity while ensuring overall cohesion. Perry Place masterfully achieves this balance across its nine distinct venues. Each concept from AMP Coffee’s high-energy sustainability focus to Rambutan’s exclusive Mai Pham-created Vietnamese fusion maintains its unique personality while contributing to the facility’s “understated industrial vibe.”

This approach reflects a crucial retail design principle: diversity without chaos. The architectural framework provides the unifying thread, while individual brand expressions create the memorable moments. Cooper Carry’s design team understood that students don’t want homogenization, they want authentic choices within a navigable environment.

Transparency as a Design Strategy

Modern consumers, particularly younger demographics, crave transparency in their retail experiences. Perry Place embraces this through its open-style kitchen layouts and visible cooking equipment. Students can watch their food being prepared at wok stations, observe the smoking process at the BBQ concept, and witness the care that goes into their orders.

This transparency serves multiple purposes. It reinforces freshness and quality, creates entertainment value, and builds trust between the brand and consumer. In an era where authenticity is currency, showing rather than telling becomes a powerful differentiator. The visible cooking elements, smokers, flattops, wok ranges aren’t just functional equipment; they’re theatrical props in the retail performance.

Technology Integration Without Disruption

The challenge in modern retail design lies in integrating necessary technology without compromising the human experience. Perry Place achieves this through thoughtful infrastructure planning, including raised access flooring that manages cables invisibly while accommodating multiple technology options for various operational needs.

The facility demonstrates that successful technology integration supports rather than dominates the experience. Students don’t visit Perry Place for the technology, they come for the food, atmosphere, and social experience. But the seamless tech infrastructure enables efficient operations, accurate ordering, and smooth service delivery that enhances rather than complicates their visit.

Storytelling Through Environmental Design

Every successful retail space tells a story, and Perry Place weaves Virginia Tech’s narrative throughout its design. The Solarex brand emerged from extensive research into university history, while the overall Perry Place identity draws inspiration from the historic pear orchards that once occupied the site. The logo’s pear tree motif within a shield evokes safety and comfort while honoring local legacy.

This storytelling approach creates emotional connection beyond functional satisfaction. Students aren’t just grabbing a meal; they’re participating in their university’s continuing story. The design elements from color palettes to architectural details serve as constant reminders of place and belonging.

Modular Flexibility for Operational Excellence

Retail environments must balance aesthetic appeal with operational efficiency. Perry Place achieves this through modular counter systems and flexible spatial arrangements that support both current operations and future adaptability. The centralized kitchen concept efficiently serves multiple venues while maintaining individual brand integrity at each point of service.

This modular approach reflects forward-thinking design philosophy. Student preferences evolve, menu offerings change, and operational requirements shift. Retail environments that can adapt without complete reconstruction maintain relevance and profitability over time.

Sustainability as Brand Differentiator

Modern retail design increasingly incorporates sustainability not as an afterthought but as a core brand differentiator. Perry Place integrates carbon-footprint reduction measures throughout the facility, from sustainably sourced employee uniforms printed with solvent-free inks to energy-efficient equipment specifications.

AMP Coffee specifically positions sustainability as part of its brand promise, appealing to environmentally conscious students. This approach demonstrates how sustainability can enhance rather than compromise the retail experience when thoughtfully integrated into the overall design strategy.

The Human Connection

Despite all the sophisticated design elements, successful retail environments ultimately succeed or fail based on human connection. Perry Place’s 600 seats aren’t just functional furniture, they’re carefully planned community spaces that encourage social interaction and relationship building.

The variety of seating configurations, from intimate two-tops to larger communal tables, acknowledges that retail spaces serve multiple social functions. Students need places for quick meals between classes, extended study sessions with friends, and celebratory gatherings. The environmental design supports all these scenarios.

Lessons for the Future

Perry Place at Virginia Tech offers valuable insights for retail designers across all sectors. The project demonstrates that successful retail design requires deep audience understanding, cohesive brand strategy, operational excellence, and emotional connection. Most importantly, it shows that when these elements align with authentic storytelling and sustainable practices, the result transcends mere commerce to create genuine community spaces.

As retail continues evolving in our digital age, projects like Perry Place remind us that physical spaces remain irreplaceable for human connection and authentic experience. The challenge for designers lies not in competing with digital convenience but in creating physical environments so compelling that they become destinations rather than mere transaction points.

The success of Perry Place, evidenced by its immediate popularity and consistent crowds, proves that when retail design principles are thoughtfully applied with genuine customer focus, the result is more than a facility. It becomes a beloved community institution that enhances daily life while achieving commercial success.

Photo by Darren Van Dyke, VT Dining Services

Walk into any college dining hall today, and you’ll feel it before you taste it: a quiet revolution is underway. It’s not just about gluten-free labels or oat milk options anymore. This is generational. Deep. Uncompromising. And if you’re in the food business, especially agri-food, foodservice, or campus dining, it’s time to tune in.

Because Gen Z won’t tolerate being ‘othered’ by your menu.

They don’t just read ingredient lists. They read intent. They look for signals that the food experience was designed with them, not for them. And if they don’t see themselves reflected in the sourcing, labeling, flavor profiles, or the values behind the offerings, they disengage. Worse, they walk.

I’ve spent the better part of my career studying the relationship between dining and human connection on campus. Through our work at Porter Khouw Consulting, and inspired by thinkers like Sid Mehta, who pushes the boundaries of sustainability, food equity, and agri-food innovation, we’ve come to understand that dining is more than just a service. It’s SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™.

And if your menu feels like a barrier instead of a bridge? Gen Z will call it out, opt out, and tell their friends to do the same.

What Does It Mean to Be ‘Othered’ by a Menu?

“Othering” occurs when individuals feel excluded, ignored, or relegated to the status of an afterthought. On a college campus, this can show up in subtle but powerful ways:

• A lack of halal, kosher, vegan, or allergy-safe options
• “Plant-based” sections that feel like a compromise instead of a celebration
• Menus that reflect one dominant culture or flavor profile
• Confusing signage, hidden ingredient info, or no labeling at all
• A dining room environment that signals, “this isn’t for you”

To someone from Gen Z, arguably the most diverse, identity-conscious generation in history, these are not oversights. They are rejections. They say: “We didn’t think about you.”

And Gen Z? They’ll believe you.

Why Gen Z Is Different and Demanding

This generation grew up on identity affirmation. They expect personalization. They demand inclusion. But more than that, they are exquisitely attuned to authenticity.

They’ll walk into your dining venue, take one look at the signage, and know if you’re faking it.

And it’s not just about identity markers like race, religion, gender, or dietary needs. It’s about values. They ask:

• Was this food sourced ethically?
• Does this vendor support fair labor practices?
• Is this packaging compostable, or is it just greenwashed plastic?
• Did anyone even ask students what they wanted before putting this concept here?

Food, to them, is personal. Its identity. It’s activism. It’s a community. And when you exclude them, even unintentionally, it’s personal too.

The Campus Dining Experience Is Ground Zero

Here’s why this matters so much in higher ed:

Dining is the only required daily gathering space for most students.

Think about that. Gen Z may skip class. They may ghost clubs. But they have to eat. And when they do, that moment at the table becomes a catalyst for trust, for friendships, and for feeling seen on a campus that might otherwise feel overwhelming.

At Porter Khouw Consulting, we refer to this as SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™: designing dining programs that serve as emotional infrastructure for student success. When dining is done right, students build friendships, feel a sense of safety, and establish social anchors. This increases retention, mental health, and even GPA.

However, if dining is done incorrectly, if students feel excluded or invisible in the food experience, they detach. And institutions feel the ripple effects in enrollment, housing occupancy, and student outcomes.

How the Agri-Food Industry Can Respond

This isn’t just a foodservice issue. It’s a call to arms for everyone in the agri-food supply chain, from producers and processors to marketers and distributors. Here’s how you step up:

1. Design with Students, Not Just for Them

Co-create menus and programs with Gen Z voices at the table. They’ll tell you what matters. They want to collaborate, not just consume.

2. Center Transparency Over Optics

Label everything clearly. Tell the story of where food comes from, how it was grown, and why it matters. If you’re not walking the talk, Gen Z will find out, and they’ll let others know.

3. Celebrate Cultural Plurality, Don’t Tokenize It

Offer global flavors not just for “International Week” but as core menu staples. Acknowledge food as a cultural identity, not just a trend.

4. Make Inclusion the Standard, Not the Special Request

Don’t bury vegan or halal dishes under “alternatives.” Bring them forward as essential. Normalize variety.

5. Invest in Sustainability Beyond Marketing

Move beyond compost bins and “local” stickers. Work with campus partners on real impact: food waste recovery, regenerative sourcing, reusable packaging. Let students see it, feel it, own it.

The Risk of Doing Nothing

Here’s the bottom line: If your dining program, even your farm, food brand, or product, makes students feel like outsiders, they won’t fight to be included. They’ll find someone else who already sees them.

And in today’s competitive higher ed and foodservice environment, that’s not just a missed meal. That’s a lost student. A lost advocate. A lost future customer.

The Future Is a Table Everyone Feels Welcome At

It’s time we stop designing menus like they’re checklists and start designing them like they’re invitations.

An invitation to belong.

To be nourished not just physically, but emotionally.

To see your identity reflected in a sauce, a spice, a story.

To feel that your presence at the table was anticipated and celebrated.

Final Thought: Don’t Be a Byproduct. Be a Bridge.

Whether you’re a food producer, a chef, a university administrator, or a distributor, your role isn’t passive. You’re not just part of the system. You’re part of the solution.

So, ask yourself:

What in our menu says: “We see you, Gen Z”?

If you don’t know the answer yet, start by listening. Then act boldly. The future of food on campus, and the future of your business, depends on it.

Written by David Porter (with the insight of Sid Mehta)

David Porter is CEO of Porter Khouw Consulting and creator of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™. Sid Mehta is a sustainability strategist and thought leader in the global agri-food ecosystem. Together, they challenge the food industry to design with empathy, purpose, and the power to connect.

“Your MIT degree is learning how to learn, and how to socialize and making contacts, it’s not what you actually learned.”
— Peter Diamandis

When Peter Diamandis made this comment, he wasn’t being flippant, he was telling the truth. As someone who has spent decades working with colleges and universities across North America, I can confirm that the most significant return on investment (ROI) from higher education is not just the content of the curriculum, it’s the human capital built along the way. MIT’s “hidden curriculum,” as Peter implies, isn’t differential equations or thermodynamics, it’s learning how to think, how to adapt, how to connect, and how to create value through networks of relationships.

Diamandis’s insight hits at the heart of something we’ve known for years but have only recently begun to value in strategic higher education planning properly: the social eco-systems of a campus can be more valuable than a lecture hall. Next-generation residential and retail dining crafted through the lens of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, aren’t just sidebars; they are where the magic of human connections happens.  Where friendships and teams are established that can transform a student’s life over the next 50 years. 

Beyond the Transcript: Why Learning How to Learn is the Real Credential

A diploma may represent mastery of a subject, but mastery has a short half-life in a world where industries are constantly disrupted. What stays with you? The ability to adapt to figure things out quickly, and to solve problems creatively, regardless of the problem set.

At MIT, or any rigorous institution, the pace and scale of what’s expected force students to develop meta-skills:

• How to deconstruct complex challenges.
• How to learn something completely new, fast.
• How to collaborate under pressure.
• How to lead a team without being the smartest person in the room.

Those who thrive at MIT learn how to iterate, prototype, revise, and persist. These are survival skills for the innovation economy. And this is where the environment matters. MIT is not a solitary experience; it is a pressure cooker of talent, energy, and intellect. If you don’t connect, you don’t succeed.

Social Capital: The Currency That Doesn’t Expire

The second part of Diamandis’ quote is equally important: “how to socialize and making contacts.” Social capital is the most underrated and misunderstood asset of the college experience. It is the human moat around your ideas, your career, and your life.

What makes MIT, or any transformative institution, so powerful isn’t just its research labs, endowment, or Nobel laureates. It’s the density of talent and the collisions of people. In that rare environment, you build a network and collection of relationships that will power startups, career pivots, collaborations, and friendships for the next 50 years.

You are in an incredibly talent-dense environment, and it’s rare. If you take advantage of it while you’ve got it, you’ll make lifelong friendships, establish lifelong connections, and build many things together, including businesses, movements, and research breakthroughs. But if you waste this window by keeping your head down, focusing only on your plan, and not looking up to engage with the brilliant people around you, you will have let one of the most valuable opportunities of your life quietly slip away. You won’t get that opportunity later, at least not at this scale, and not this naturally.

Transforming Dining as a Catalyst for Human Connection

At Porter Khouw Consulting, we’ve built our entire philosophy SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ around the belief that our purpose is to transform dining as a catalyst for human connection. It is the missing ingredient in higher education strategies for student success. Every freshman who doesn’t start finding their tribe within the first 45 days is statistically more likely to leave. It’s that simple.

The dining program is one of the most underutilized and potentially the most potent tools colleges and universities have to build and nurture these connections. Unlike orientation, sporting events, student programming, SGA or RA meetings, meals are served (and ordered for delivery) multiple times a day, everyday, 24/7 throughout the academic year. They are a natural, habitual and necessary part of life. When we reimagine dining and create even more value with our next-generation residential and retail campus wide dining programs, through the lens of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, we’re not just to feeding their bodies. Still, more importantly, we are feeding their souls through human connection. We can change the entire trajectory of the student experience and their lives. It’s the reason why we’ve pioneered SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, next-generation residential and retail dining programs and novel strategies like “The Freshman 15”, not for pounds gained, but for 15 intentional new friendship connections initiated in the first 45 days.

MIT may not have explicitly marketed this aspect, but, as Peter notes, it’s baked into the experience. You don’t get through the MIT gauntlet alone, and the sooner institutions realize this and design next-generation residential and retail dining environments to foster richer levels of student engagement, the stronger their retention, enrollment, and alumni networks will become.

A Lesson for Institutions: Build the Greenhouse, Not Just the Syllabus

MIT, Stanford, and a few other elite institutions operate like greenhouses. They don’t just plant seeds of knowledge; they create social ecosystems where growth is inevitable because of the soil, the sunlight, and the face-to-face proximity to other growing minds.

That’s the lesson for every college, especially those outside the top 50 rankings. You don’t need a $20 billion endowment to create meaningful social capital. You need:

• Intentional spaces that encourage connection.
• Next generation residential and retail dining programs that make spontaneous combustion of face-to-face conversations inevitable.
• Programming that teaches students how to build their personal networks.
• And an institutional commitment to creating moments of “serendipitous collision.”

The ROI on this kind of design is enormous. When students leave with a strong network, a sense of belonging, and the skill of learning itself, they are recession-proof, disruption-proof, and future-ready.

A Message to Students: Don’t Miss the Real Curriculum

If you’re in college or heading there soon, listen carefully to Peter Diamandis’ words. Yes, work hard. Yes, get the grades but don’t mistake the syllabus for the education.

Invest your time in:

• Building friendships with people who are smarter or different from you.
• Learning how to ask better questions, not just give better answers.
• Partnering with classmates on impossible side projects.
• Eating meals with intention, break bread, don’t just grab it while feeding souls.

The friendships and contacts you form, as well as the collaborative skills you develop will serve as the foundation for everything you build later in life. That’s the unspoken credential that separates those who just got a degree from those who got a transformative experience.

Final Thought: The Degree is the Receipt. Mindset and Purpose are the Product.

Diamandis’s quote captures something profoundly true about the college experience, especially at institutions like MIT. The diploma is merely the artifact. What matters is how you changed, who you met, and how you learned to learn your mindset and sense of purpose. Those are the things that will most significantly influence and shape your character, career, contributions to the world, and longevity.

If you’re a college administrator and your primary strategic goals include increasing enrollment, improving student retention, and achieving 100% housing occupancy, then your institution’s survival and long-term success depend on more than just academic programs and facilities. You must ensure that you’re building social eco-systems of human connection campus-wide ecosystems that actively foster richer levels of student engagement and social capital. Think of your campus as a potential Blue Zone for belonging: a place where students feel seen, supported, and connected. By intentionally designing spaces and programs that nurture friendships, encourage collaboration, and eliminate social isolation, you create an environment where students don’t just enroll. They stay, thrive, and succeed.

If you’re a student, don’t just chase grades, chase growth. Seek out the moments that challenge your thinking, expand your social network, and shape the person you’re becoming. College isn’t just preparation for life it is life. The relationships you build now will become the foundation for your future partnerships, ventures, and support systems.

And if you lead dining, space planning, or student life, recognize that the table is far more than a place to eat. It has the potential to be the a daily epicenter of human connection an intentional space that sparks conversation, fosters friendships, and ignites the kind of collaboration that defines a truly transformational college experience.

Because in the end, the real education isn’t what’s taught, it’s what’s caught in this once-in-a-lifetime face to face college experience. community.That’s what shapes your mindset, your sense of purpose, and your ability to become a lifelong game changer.

Insights from Chapter Nine of “The Porter Principles”: My Top 10 Keys to Selling More Meal Plans

Every semester, I watch the same frustrating cycle on college and university campuses across America. Parents purchase the largest meal plan available, hoping to ensure their freshman won’t go hungry. Halfway through the year, that same student calls home with a familiar refrain: “Get me off this meal plan, it’s not worth the money.” By sophomore year, they’ve either downgraded to the smallest option or opted out entirely, leaving dining administrators scratching their heads and scrambling to balance budgets.

Sound familiar? If you’re a dining director, auxiliary services administrator, or campus financial officer, you’ve lived this scenario countless times. But here’s what I’ve discovered after 35 years of independent strategic planning, food service operator selection, and design consulting experience: the problem isn’t your students or your prices, it’s your program.

The Great Meal Plan Misconception I Had to Unlearn

In Chapter Nine of “The Porter Principles,” I tackle the most persistent myth in campus dining, one I used to believe myself during my early Harvard University dining operations days. For years, I watched administrators respond to meal plan complaints by creating cheaper options, adding more flexibility, or reducing requirements, essentially attempting to make a less-than-desirable dining program more desirable by charging less for it. I call this the “buy high, buy down, and get off” death spiral hobbling campus dining programs nationwide.

After decades of research and hundreds of campus transformations throughout my 35 years of independent consulting, I’ve learned something that should fundamentally change how we think about meal plan participation: “The fact is, it doesn’t matter how much a meal plan costs. If the dining program does not work for the student and, in turn, the student does not feel that it is a good value, then it will always be considered a rip-off.”

This insight completely changed my approach to consulting. I stopped trying to make bad programs cheaper and started making programs so good that, at a minimum, the price became moot, and students would voluntarily buy up and pay more for them.

Discovering The Inferior Program Penalty

I identified what I call The Inferior Program Penalty, when students are forced to pay twice for food because their meal plan doesn’t actually serve their needs.

Let me paint you a picture I’ve seen countless times: Johnny arrives on campus with a 21-meal-per-week plan his parents purchased. However, the dining hall closes at 7 PM, and Johnny doesn’t eat dinner until 9 PM because of his evening classes. His meal plan becomes worthless for dinner, so he orders pizza with his own money. He’s now paying twice for the same meal.

Or consider Sarah, who discovers that her dining dollars run out three weeks before the semester ends, forcing her to spend her own money on groceries while still paying for a meal plan she can’t use.

These students aren’t complaining about price—they’re complaining about value. And once I understood this distinction, everything about my approach to meal plan design changed.

My “Starbucks Revelation”

One of my breakthrough moments came while observing student behavior during my consulting work. I realized that students don’t go to Starbucks, Whole Foods, or choose Apple products to save money. They choose these brands because they perceive exceptional value.

“There’s not a person who goes to Whole Foods or goes into an Apple store to save money,” I often tell my clients. “And yet Whole Foods and Apple are wildly successful. Why? Because people believe they’re getting a compelling value when they go there.”

This observation revolutionized my thinking: students will gladly pay premium prices for meal plans—if those plans actually work for their lifestyles and deliver perceived value through what I call SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™.

My Top 10 Keys to Meal Plan Success

After transforming hundreds of campus dining programs throughout decades of experience, I’ve developed ten proven strategies that consistently increase meal plan participation and student satisfaction:

1. Fix Your Dining Program First

This is where most universities get it backwards. They try to engineer new meal plan structures around failing programs. Drawing from both my 19 years of hands-on operations experience and 35 years of consulting, I always tell my clients: before tweaking meal plan options, fix the underlying program. If you’re not offering what students want in terms of menu variety, hours of operation, location, and social engagement opportunities, no meal plan structure will succeed.

2. Listen to What Students Actually Do (Not What They Say)

Here’s something that might surprise you: I never ask students what they want—I ask what they do. Where do they go for late-night food? When do they actually eat? What are their real patterns?

I’ve learned that what people do is the best indicator of what they will do. This behavioral data is far more valuable than survey responses about preferences, which often reflect what students think they should want rather than their actual habits.

3. Create What I Call a “Gravitational Pull”

Successful dining programs create what I call a “gravitational social pull”—an irresistible combination of great food, social energy, and convenience that makes students want to be there. Think of how Starbucks creates a “third place” between home and work, or how Apple Stores make technology shopping into an experience.

When you get this right through proper SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, students don’t eat on campus because they have to, they eat there because they want to.

4. Design for Access, Not Just Consumption

Through my consulting work, I’ve identified two types of value propositions: consumption-driven (how much you can get) versus access-driven (the ability to eat whenever you want).

I’ve found that unlimited dining programs often work better than traditional meal swipe systems because they eliminate the anxiety of “wasting” unused meals. When students know they can always eat, they actually make healthier choices and waste less food.

5. Make Payment Frictionless

In our electronic age, students shouldn’t need to carry cash or remember specific payment methods. As I tell my clients based on my decades of operations and consulting experience, the hardest part of purchasing should be choosing between the Italian sub and the tuna salad—never remembering to bring the correct form of payment.

My “Buy Up” Challenge

Here’s an exercise I give to every administrator I work with: “Take a minute, get a pencil and paper, and write down all of the establishments you have visited over the past ten years that have encouraged you to ‘buy down.’ Make the list as long as you wish, but I’m guessing you’ll only have one place on the list—your campus meal plan.”

This observation should be a wake-up call. Every successful business model encourages customers to upgrade, not downgrade. When I design dining programs around student needs and SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, students choose more expensive plans because they deliver superior value.

Connecting Meal Plans to SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™

My meal plan philosophy can’t be separated from my broader SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ methodology, Meal plans aren’t just payment methods they’re the financial foundation that enables social connection and community building on campus.

When meal plans work properly, they eliminate barriers to social interaction. Students don’t have to worry about having cash or calculating costs when friends invite them to grab food together. They can participate spontaneously in the social rituals that build lifelong friendships and campus loyalty.

This is where dining becomes transformational rather than transactional—the core principle of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™.

What I’ve Learned After 400+ Campus Transformations

My meal plan philosophy boils down to this: stop treating symptoms and start addressing causes. The problem isn’t that students don’t want to spend money on food—it’s that your program doesn’t deserve their money.

Through my Success Fee Guarantee model, I’ve staked my reputation on this principle. I only get paid when we create programs so valuable that students voluntarily participate at higher levels. And it works, every single time.

“When students are happy, they persist. They graduate, recommend your school, and come back as alumni,” I always remind my clients. “It all starts with something as simple as mozzarella sticks, as comforting as pizza, and as joyful as Belgian waffles with a scoop of ice cream.”

The Choice Is Yours

I can tell you that you have two paths: continue the race to the bottom with cheaper, more restrictive meal plans, or join what I call the value revolution by creating dining programs so compelling that students voluntarily choose to participate—and pay premium prices for the privilege.

Your meal plan participation rates—and your students’ success—depend on which path you choose.

I’ve seen both approaches in action across 400+ campuses throughout my consulting career. I know which one transforms lives and which one perpetuates problems. The question is: are you ready to make the change?

David Porter, FCSI, is CEO and President of Porter Khouw Consulting, Inc., and pioneer of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™. With 19 years of hands-on food service operations experience in restaurants and self-operated higher education dining (including Harvard University) plus 35 years of independent strategic planning, food service operator selection, and design consulting experience, his book “The Porter Principles” has transformed campus dining programs across North America.

Let’s talk about the simplest meal in the American culinary canon: a hot bowl of tomato soup and a perfectly grilled cheese sandwich.

It’s not fancy. It’s not “elevated.” But it’s everything.

It’s the meal that whispers, you’re safe. It’s what we crave on gray days when we’re feeling unmoored. It’s what we remember being made for us by someone who loved us, without asking if we were vegan, gluten-free, keto, or trending. It’s not a meal that performs. It doesn’t Instagram well. It doesn’t need garnish. It’s the culinary equivalent of a warm hug and a reassuring hand on your back that says, you’re going to be just fine.

And in my world, the world of college dining, social connection, and strategic planning, it’s a metaphor for everything that matters.

The Real Recipe for Connection

Colleges are pouring billions into new residence halls, tech upgrades, esports lounges, and AI-enhanced classrooms. Meanwhile, many are still missing what students actually need most human connection.

That’s where the grilled cheese and tomato soup come in.

This humble meal is more than comfort food it’s an archetype of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™. When served in a dining hall designed not just for food service but for community service, a meal like this becomes a conversation starter, a moment of nostalgia, a reason to sit just a little longer across from someone new.

Because let’s be honest: no one is stress-eating quinoa.

A student might grab a salad and rush off to class, earbuds in, socially invisible. But put tomato soup and a hot sandwich in front of them especially one that reminds them of home and suddenly you’ve created a moment. The smell, the steam, the satisfying crackle as the knife cuts through the crust—it slows them down. Makes them stay. Makes them open up.

Loneliness Can’t Be Cured with Delivery Apps

One of the most dangerous epidemics on college campuses isn’t drugs or alcohol it’s loneliness. It’s young men and women sitting in their rooms, eating alone from a takeout container, watching TikToks instead of making memories. It’s the quiet erosion of mental health that happens not in a moment of crisis, but over the course of 45 days—the six-week window when a freshman decides if they feel like they belong.

Dining programs, when done right, are the antidote.

But they’re only effective if they stop trying to be restaurants and start acting like relationship engines. Stop curating food courts for efficiency and start designing them for humanity. Give students spaces that invite them to linger. Offer meals that don’t just fill their stomachs, but feed their stories.

Because the grilled cheese is never just about cheese.

It’s about mom making it for you when you stayed home sick. It’s about a snow day. It’s about pajamas and reruns of “The Price is Right.” And when you sit across from someone eating that same meal, and your eyes meet, you say without saying, I get you.

That is the social currency that no tuition payment can buy.

Drop the Mic

I’ve spent my career helping colleges design better dining programs. I’ve built strategies that increase retention, improve housing occupancy, and, yes, raise GPAs. But do you want to know what works better than data dashboards and financial models?

A bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, served in a dining hall that’s built to build friendships.

When dining programs fail, it’s never just because the food wasn’t good. It’s because the space didn’t feel good. The lighting was wrong. The seating was awkward. The music was off. Or worse, the food was great, but everyone took it to go.

You can’t build community if no one stays long enough to say hello.

This is why SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ matters. Because it’s not enough to serve food. You have to serve a purpose. You have to create the conditions where students bump into each other, strike up conversations, and begin weaving together the social fabric that will define their college experience and their lives beyond it.

You want to reduce anxiety, improve student success, and retain more sophomores? Serve tomato soup and grilled cheese in a dining hall that feels like a second home.

Boom. Drop the mic.

A Challenge to Campus Leaders

To the presidents, provosts, and CFOs reading this: Your dining program is not a line item—it’s a lifeline.

If your campus dining spaces aren’t designed to nurture emotional well-being and facilitate social connection, then they are actively contributing to the problem. The solution doesn’t require a $100 million building campaign. It requires a mindset shift.

What if we stopped asking, How many students can we feed per hour? and started asking, How many lives can we impact per meal?

What if the grilled cheese and tomato soup were the centerpiece of your retention strategy?

It may sound quaint. It may even sound naïve.

But in a world that’s growing more disconnected by the day, offering students a warm, simple, familiar meal in a space that encourages face-to-face connection isn’t nostalgia, it’s strategy.

In Closing

There’s a reason we return to this meal again and again, even in adulthood. It’s not just about flavor. It’s about feeling. It’s about connection. It’s about belonging.

That’s what students want. That’s what they need.

So here’s my call to action: Start designing your dining program not as a food factory, but as the heart of your campus culture. Serve more grilled cheese. Ladle out the soup. Build spaces that bring people together. If you do, I promise you’ll see results—retention, engagement, happiness, academic success.

And if you’re not sure where to start?

Let’s talk.

Because sometimes, the solution to a very big problem starts with something very small.

A bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.

Drop the mic.

Let’s talk honestly about college dining today, and let’s start with a simple question that nearly every student across North America is asking:

Is it too much to ask for consistent, craveable, inclusive food options every single day, especially when I’m paying between $5,000 and $9,000 a year for a mandatory meal plan?

The short answer? No. It’s not too much to ask. In fact, it’s the bare minimum.

I’ve spent over 35 years walking college campuses, eating in dining halls, listening to students, and studying what works and what doesn’t. And here’s what I’ve learned: Students aren’t asking for Michelin-starred meals. They’re asking for dependable favorites, done well, served with pride and consistency.

French fries. Mac and cheese. A great burger. A grilled sub. A plant-forward entrée. And a legitimate allergen-free platform that doesn’t feel like a second-class experience.
Every. Single. Day.

Why These Foods Matter More Than You Think

Let’s be clear—this isn’t a childish or indulgent wish list. These menu items are emotional anchors. They offer comfort, familiarity, and accessibility in an unfamiliar environment where students are dealing with academic pressure, social transition, and, for many, being away from home for the first time.

They also serve as social lubricants. What food is more universally loved than a basket of hot fries or a burger hot off the grill? They foster connection, casual conversation, and community. If you’re committed to reducing loneliness and increasing retention, this is where you start—not with more programming, but with food that draws students in and keeps them coming back.

The Price Tag Demands It

Let’s talk dollars and expectations.
Mandatory meal plans in the $5,000 to $9,000 range are now the norm. Students and families are mandated to pay this. That’s almost more than many people spend on groceries in a year. So why is it okay to remove core favorites from the menu entirely on certain days? Or serve them inconsistently depending on which dining hall you walk into?

If an off-campus restaurant refused to serve fries or burgers on Tuesdays, or stopped offering mac ‘n cheese on weekends, would anyone go back? Of course not. Yet on campus, we’ve trained students to lower their expectations and accept inconsistency as the norm.

Dining programs must meet the promise that their price tags imply: everyday access to the foods students crave, with enough variety and balance to meet every lifestyle and dietary need.

Craveable and Inclusive Are Not Opposites

There’s a false narrative floating around some campuses that to be progressive, dining must move “beyond burgers and fries.” I understand the spirit of that sentiment. We do need to push toward sustainability. We must reduce food waste. And yes, plant-forward, allergen-conscious, and nutritionally balanced options are more important than ever.

But here’s the trap: somewhere along the line, we began interpreting progress as subtraction.

Removing the foods students love isn’t progress. It’s exclusion.

Real leadership in campus dining means adding value—not subtracting. It means expanding options so that the vegan student and the burger lover can both eat side by side, feel satisfied, and have no reason to leave campus to eat.

It means having both Impossible and Angus patties on the grill. It means a plant-forward mac and cheese made with oat milk and cashew cheese right alongside the classic cheddar version your mom used to make. And yes, it means fries, crispy, golden, real—not some soggy, oven-baked compromise that no one wants to finish.

Consistency Is the Real Innovation

Innovation isn’t about creating the most obscure menu cycle or rotating in exotic ingredients no one can pronounce. The most powerful innovation in college dining right now is predictable, high-quality consistency.

Students don’t want surprises when it comes to core favorites. They want to know that if they had a long night of studying, or didn’t eat breakfast, they can walk into any dining hall and find something that hits the spot.

That’s not lazy or outdated thinking. It’s strategic design.

Because when students know they can rely on campus dining to satisfy them, morning, noon, and late night, they stop leaving campus to eat. They engage. They linger. They bring friends. And that translates to better retention, higher occupancy, stronger social capital, and a more vibrant community.

Food as SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™

At Porter Khouw Consulting, we’ve pioneered the concept of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, the idea that dining is the most powerful platform to foster friendships, build networks, and drive emotional well-being in students. And guess what: French fries are part of that architecture. So is the mac and cheese. And the grilled sub, the plant-forward grain bowl, and the allergen-free risotto.

Why? Because when students eat what they love, where they love, with people they like, it changes their trajectory. It transforms dining from a transaction to a connection. And connection is what retains students.

The Real Question: Why Wouldn’t You Offer These Every Day?

It’s time to flip the script. Instead of asking whether it’s too much to offer all of this every day, let’s ask why we ever stopped doing it in the first place.
We know the answer: budget cuts, staffing issues, cost of goods, supply chain disruptions. We’ve heard them all.

But at the end of the day, those aren’t reasons, they’re excuses.

The schools that win, the ones who thrive in spite of the enrollment cliff, are those who reject mediocrity and deliver on their value promise every day. They know that food isn’t the student experience. It creates the student experience.

A Call to Action

Whether your current dining agreement expires June 30, 2025 or June 30, 2026, or you’re just tired of broken promises and low expectations, it’s time to act.

At Porter Khouw Consulting, we don’t just write reports. We reinvent dining experiences using our industry-only performance-based, success fee guarantee. That means if we don’t increase your bottom line, you don’t pay us. Period.

Let’s talk about how to deliver the consistency, variety, and value your students deserve, every single day.

Schedule a call with me today and find out if your institution qualifies for our no-risk, results-driven approach.

Because your students deserve more than lukewarm excuses.
They deserve fries—and mac and cheese, with a side of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™. Every day.