This semester, the Drew campus has been buzzing with complaints and praises alike for the new dining system — namely Drew’s newfound collaboration with Grubhub.
If you are like most of us and still do not understand how Grubhub works, here is a rundown: students on the standard platinum meal plan have three meal swipes a day to spend at the Ehinger Center or Zaro’s, and unlimited swipes into the commons. Any combination of food at the Ehinger Center or Zaro’s under $9.50 will qualify as a meal swipe, and any cost over $9.50 will come out of your dining dollars. For example, a sandwich that costs $10 will cost one meal swipe and $0.50 dining dollars.
In terms of misconceptions and accessibility of the app itself, I have dug around the app so that you do not have to. A lot of people have complained that when they open the app, they are not shown dining options on campus. To switch over to campus options, simply select “Pickup” in the top-left corner as opposed to “Delivery.”
In order to check your balance, select “Account,” then “Payment.” From there you can see the total number of meal swipes remaining for the day, and your remaining dining dollars for the semester. Although at the beginning of the day it says you start out with 100 meal swipes, you will run out when the balance drops to 97.
Many students are in favor of the app for its convenience. Having the option to pick up food on the go, without having to spend time waiting in lines, makes getting meals quick and easy. The app itself, however, has proved to be anything but simple.
If you want to order things from two different places in the Ehinger Center, for example, you have to place two separate orders, using two meal swipes instead of one. In the Commons, where you used to only have to swipe your card to get in, you now have to go through three million steps in Grubhub to check in. Orders are constantly canceled without reason, and numerous students have expressed frustration with the fact that orders are rarely ready when they say they are.
Generally speaking, the quality of food has drastically improved. Some favorites from the Ehinger Center have been the rice bowls from Halal Shack and the milkshakes from Yella’s. The prices, however, are murder. No student can afford to pay $24 for chicken wings. There are a select few options for meals below $9.50, and many of these — for example, the chicken sandwich, which comes with no sides – do not make for a sustainable meal.
Although the general quality of food has improved, students with dietary restrictions have remarked that there are no longer good vegetarian or vegan options. This is in part due to the inability to put notes into the Grubhub app. Some meal options are also not customizable, and for others, customizing options are extremely limited. Students with dietary restrictions are therefore given minimal options to choose from.
In terms of allergies, the allergy station at the commons was not running for the first two weeks of school, the food labels at the other centers are often inaccurate and the staff cannot always identify the food that they are serving. The online menus also do not always list ingredients.
One notable thing about the new meal stations is that they are all small businesses. One might think that this would create a stronger sense of community between the students and the meal staff, but the setup in the Ehinger Center creates a disconnect. On this, Abby Michal (‘26) remarked, “Before, we would see the same chefs and cashiers every day, exchanging greetings and casual conversation. Now, we hardly see them at all — they are hidden behind a barrier, making the experience feel less personal.”
The Ehinger Center used to be a place where you could walk over right after class, place your order, and have it ready in five to six minutes. Now, with Grubhub, you can be told to wait 10 minutes, only to arrive and see that your order is still being prepared, often doubling the wait time. On top of that, students end up sifting through food boxes trying to find their name on the receipt, while the overwhelmed kitchen staff rushes to manage the backlog of orders.
There is also no real tracking system to prevent someone from taking food they did not pay for. During the first week, food was placed in secure lockers that you could only unlock with a code, but now the lockers are not being used, and the food is just left out in open cubbies, making it easy for anyone to grab. This would not be such a big issue if you ordered right then and there at the Ehinger Center and waited, but most of the time, you have to place your order 15-30 minutes in advance, often while you are still in class.
Grubhub is also not very practical for ordering food at the C-Store, to the point that the staff do not even seem to use it. Although it seems as if you can order a sandwich on Grubhub, I have waited 30 minutes for the app to tell me that my sandwich is “ready,” only to get to the C-Store and have to reorder it.
Because Grubhub makes ordering food easier, the C-Store has been getting an influx of customers. There is typically only one staff member designated to making both the sandwiches and the pizza, and I have opened the app to see that there are as many as 15 meals being prepared at once. If the C-Store does not use Grubhub, it should be removed from the app to avoid confusion. This would also lessen the strain on the staff.
On the note of GrubHub’s inaccessibility to staff, Lindsay Orr (‘26) said that when she spoke to the meal staff, they told her that they did not know how to make a lot of the items listed on Grubhub, and were not communicated with properly regarding how they might make them.
When I noticed that the employees at Zaro’s (some of whom are former Peet’s employees) looked overwhelmed while simultaneously managing the app and the orders, Lena, one of the baristas, said, “It’s just new. It’s something that we are going to have to get used to.” Hopefully, with a few changes and a little time, we might all adjust to the Grubhub app and grow to enjoy its benefits.