Meal plans here at MSU have a few interesting quirks. Sure, you can swap 2 block meals a day for fast food from 4 p.m. – 12 a.m. Sure, the dining halls of Fresh and Perry are all-you-can-eat. On a deep level, however, the meal plans provided here at MSU are flawed.
When you look at the Meal Plan 101 page on the Dining Services website, the nuggets of information above are accompanied by several less-than-ideal aspects, especially about the meal plan exchanges. You get two a day— one from 4 – 9 p.m. and one from 9 p.m. – 12 a.m. 
There are few places on campus that are even open until the end of that first block and much less for the later one. The Steak N’ Shake that was shoved so ignominiously in where there once stood Burger King is only open until 11 p.m., and it qualifies as an outlier! It is the last restaurant open every night. Even later than the few Provision on Demand convenience stores, which are open until 10 p.m. Steak N’ Shake is only outmatched by the recent addition of the Maroon Market, whose payment methods have been very hit-or-miss in my experience so far.
However, it could be so much worse, right? At least something other than a picked-over Honors College snack shop is open that late, right? Spend your $6.58 well because that is all you get. Each block meal exchange is only worth six and a half dollars. 
Have you ever tallied how much food $6.58 will get you in most places? It normally is not very much, especially once you include tax on the order. You can get a single entree container at the Panda Express in Colvard Student Union. You can get a chicken sandwich and maybe a small side of fries at Chick-Fil-A. You get absolutely nothing at the Union Starbucks because exchanges are not accepted there. 
There is a much better way to arrange for plans like this to be carried because at the core, it is a good idea. Allowing people to swap from one meal plan currency to the other is something that cannot be allowed to go away entirely, the idea just needs to be worked on. 
An example of a university meal plan being better than this is the meal plan system at Western Kentucky University, which looks very similar at first glance to those here at State. Each plan has a number of meal tickets redeemable at their cafeterias and a complementary supply of what we would recognize as flex dollars. 
WKU’s big difference is in the way a student shifts between the two. Whereas State has a dollar value for their exchanges, WKU decided that locations participating in their exchanges should have a specific set of items known as their Value Menu. One of the cafeteria block meals can be exchanged solely for already-laid-out options on that portion of the menu.
This idea would be a great addition to adopt here at State, but WKU’s improvements over us do not stop there. Meal plans for WKU students come with what they call “guest meals,” allowing an extremely limited number of visitors to campus to eat without counting against the student’s meal plan. While State has something similar for its Ultimate meal plan, WKU offers them for most of the common plans. 
Additionally, students at WKU can use the Value Menu up to four times a day, double what State allows and without the time constraint. These are clear improvements over what we have. Not to mention that every single option of the Value Menu is, as the name of the exchange itself implies, a meal. 
Beyond just being convenient for students to use their block meals like this, changing the meal plans here to include our own Value Menu equivalent would be a way to promote healthier eating structures, something that many students struggle with.
National statistics state that 30% of all U.S. college students will suffer from some form of food insecurity while enrolled at their university. With the Block by Block program already up and running, allowing students to transfer block meals, the Value Menu-style exchanges could contribute to more stable eating structures both for those who need it most and those who simply are not used to fitting food in around their classes.