CSU meal plan hurts private business (1.31.10)

Let's have a quick latte with Christy Welch, co-owner of Fountain City Coffee on Broadway.

Posting on InTown Columbus, she sheds light on how Columbus State University's meal policy works for students who live in the downtown dorms — a subject broached last week by a neighboring merchant.

My husband Kevin and I own Fountain City Coffee and we were not approached to bid on the contract for meal card business. So no, we did not have the option/opportunity to compete for this business. We found out from an employee that CSU had changed their meal plan policy from the year before.

In the 2007-2008 school year, students who lived in the downtown dorms were not required to purchase a meal plan. In the 2008-2009 school year, they were. This means they can get meals that they were forced to prepay for from "The Den" for twice a day without paying any money out of their pockets. The Den is the only place downtown where they can use their "Cougar Cash".

Once this new policy was put in place, 'The Den's traffic MOST DEFINITELY increased from the year before. We share an alleyway with them where trash is stored and their trash output increased dramatically. There are 350 students in the downtown dorms. If they all received their two meals a day that the meal plan provides, that would be 700 per day so 600-700 is probably a high estimate.

Yes, students can use their Cougar Cards at Fountain City Coffee or any other business on Broadway like any other credit/debit card . What has changed is that students now basically pre-pay for their meals and The Den is the only place downtown that they can redeem their prepayment.

CSU owns the dorms (obviously) the building Fountain City Coffee is in, The Den's building and My Party Place, just to name a few buildings downtown. When the dorm construction was going on we (Fountain City) were basically told (by CSU) to stop complaining about the slow-down in business because once all the students were in the dorms, business would be great for us.

When the students didn't go to The Den/The Market voluntarily, the next year they were forced to spend their money there with this new meal plan policy.