A collage of the dining reps for GW Dining

Meal Planning

 

With more than 105 diverse dining partners, you have your choice of where, when and what you want to eat. The amount of Dining Cash in your plan depends on your class year plus whatever funds you add or rollover. While some partners offer deals and discounts to students using their GWorld card, you may need to be mindful about what you spend on food. To customize your dining plan to meet your unique needs, tastes and budget, consider a balance between eating at restaurants, purchasing groceries and preparing meals.

By downloading the GET app, you can find the full list of our dining partners and check your account balance at any time. Use it to track and manage your spending and add Dining Cash or Colonial Cash if your funds are running low.
 


Planning Your Meals

To make the most of your Dining Cash each semester, try to plan ahead and think about how you will spend your Dining Cash to best meet your dining needs. You might plan on a daily or weekly basis or use budgeting apps. Your dining plan assignment depends on the availability of a kitchen in your residence hall as defined by your Housing Licensing Agreement and only includes the minimum amount. You can add funds as needed to best meet your individual needs.

Students living in residences with kitchens that are interested in having more Dining Cash may opt to purchase the higher value dining plan than the plan that is assigned.

Students should visit the GWorld Office, located on the Ground Floor of the Marvin Center to purchase a higher value dining plan. The deadline for submitting dining plan changes is Friday, September 7, 2018 for the fall semester, and Friday, January 25, 2019 for the spring semester.

Dining Plan Minimums

2018-19 Academic Year Dining Cash Plan Rates:

  • Residents Without a Kitchen: $4,600 Dining Cash ($2,300 per semester)
  • Residents With a Kitchen: $2,800 Dining Cash ($1,400 per semester)

2019-20 Academic Year Dining Cash Plan Rates:

  • Residents Without a Kitchen: $4,750 Dining Cash ($2,375 per semester)
  • Residents With a Kitchen: $3,050 Dining Cash ($1,525 per semester)

Undergraduate students living in GW residence halls will be assigned a Dining Plan based upon the availability of a kitchen in a student's housing assignment.  All undergraduate students living in GW residence halls are required to participate in the Dining Plan.  

GW Dining Plan values represent average amount of Dining Cash needed by students for the academic year.  Dining funds roll over from semester-to-semester and year-to-year. 

Students are encouraged to select the higher rate meal plan if they are concerned that they will not have enough dining cash or if they would prefer to dine more outside of their room during the year. Dining Plan changes must be made by the student on line through Houseing E-services within the first 2 weeks of the semester.

Making the Minimum Last

There are many actions you can take to make the minimum amount last while eating the foods you enjoy:
  • Cook with friends and share ingredients
  • Purchase name brand items or items on sale
  • Look for specials and rewards programs at the restaurants you love. For example, you can download Sweetgreen and/or Beefsteak’s app to earn rewards
  • Sign up for programs at CVS and/or Safeway to earn rewards, get coupons and learn about discounts
  • Look for coupons to use at the store
  • Take a list with you to the grocery store so that you only buy what you need
  • Cook more than one serving at a time and plan to eat the leftovers for another meal

GW Dining Reps

GW Dining Reps are students who not only share best practices about how to make the most out of the university's robust dining program they share their favorite foods, restaurants and deals. Many Dining Reps have unique dining needs and can help students and families enjoy the program regardless of their dietary needs. Students who need more support or who are interested in becoming a Dining Rep should email [email protected]. 

 

sara gluten free

Gluten Free Rep: Sarah

Sarah is a senior, double majoring in geography and international affairs with a concentration in international environmental studies. She is from Tucson, Arizona, and was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in January of her freshman year. Since then, she has been on the lookout for the best and safest gluten-free options on campus. Sarah loves to cook everything from roasted veggies to stir fry in her residence hall. When she has a busy day, her on-campus favorites are Roti and &Pizza. Sarah likes to explore off campus GWorld vendors like Surfside and Wicked Waffle.

Top 5 Favorite GWorld Meals:

  1. Swizzler's Leonardog with no bun and brussels sprouts
  2. GRK's Lentil Soup
  3. Roti's Salmon Kabob Bowl with Gluten Free Pita
  4. Devon & Blakely Gluten-Free Wrap and Daily Soup 
  5. Surfside's 

Vegetarian Rep Jess

Vegetarian/Vegan Rep: Jess

Jess is an economics major from Wayland, MA. She is a long-time vegetarian. She finds it relatively easy to get vegetarian and vegan options at GW and mostly eats Sweetgreen, Roti, Panera, Wholefoods, and Chipotle. She loves GW’s meal deals and always looks for discounts. One of her favorites is HomeSlyce’s sandwich and side for $5.55 on Thursdays. She cooks at home a lot to save time and money. She loves to meal prep easy dinners like stir-frys and pasta, specifically veggie lasagna. She makes it in several small pans and freezes them to cook at a later date. One of her favorite lesser-known GWorld locations is Chalin’s because they have an entirely vegetarian section on the menu.

Top Five Favorite GWorld Meals:

  1. Roti’s Falafel Rice Plate
  2. Sweetgreen’s Hummus Tahina
  3. Panera’s “You Pick Two” with Modern Greek Quinoa salad and Tomato Soup
  4. 2 slices of vegan pizza from Whole Foods
  5. Chipotle’s veggie bowl (Comes with free guac!)

Sage Dining Rep

Dining Experience Rep: Sage

Sage is a senior majoring in public health and minoring in nutrition. She’s from Pennsylvania where she grew up loving seasonal vegetables to highlight meals and knowing where her produce and grocery items came from. At GW, she sticks to a rough budget by dividing her allotted dining money per semester per week of s emester and trying to keep her weekly spending under that amount. Cooking a bulk amount of food at the beginning of the week helps her avoid eating out too many times a week and also helps her maintain a healthy diet and ensure she’s getting enough energy for exercising. Although her favorite meals are ones she cooks herself, if she’s running low on time she’ll grab a soup and salad combo from Panera Bread or a Z&Z flatbread from the Foggy Bottom Farmers Market.

Click here for top 5 GWorld items

Rida Halal

Halal Rep: Rida

Rida is the GW Dining Halal Representative. She can help you find halal meals & restaurants both on and off campus! She takes advantage of the halal options on GWorld whenever possible. She is a huge fan of the House of Falafel and Tasty Kabob food trucks and the Halal Guys.

 

Mount Vernon Rep Clara

Mount Vernon Dining Rep:  Clara

Clara is a sophomore from Staten Island, NY and is studying International Affairs and Spanish. This is Clara’s second year on the Vern; she lived in Somers last year and is an RA is Somers this year. Clara loves living on the Vern, especially with the new dining provider at Pelham and Higher Grounds, SAGE.  SAGE offers a new lunch and dinner menu everyday, which you can check daily on the TouchOfSage App, as well as classics at their late night grill from 9-11 PM.

Around campus, Clara frequents Safeway to do her grocery shopping for the week, and save tons of money with her Safeway Club Card. You can also find her cooking said groceries in the Somers Kitchen or in her room, as she has mastered the art of using tea kettle and microwave to cook.

Top Five Favorite GWorld Meals:

  1. Sweetgreen Kale Cesar with Green Goddess Dressing  
  2. Pelham Grill Chicken Tenders and Fries
  3. SOL Chicken Burrito Bowl with White Rice and Fajita Vegetables
  4. 7th Hill Union Station Personal Pie
  5. Rolls by U Bowl with Salmon, Edamame, Avocado, Asparagus, and Spinach with Spicy Mayo

Zoe Kosher Rep

Kosher Dining Rep: Zoe

Like most Jewish students on campus (and everywhere), Zoe keeps her own version of kosher. She eats vegetarian at restaurants that are not heckshered. Meanwhile, for the GW Dining Kosher account, she only post heckshered items (whether they be cooked in her kitchen or bought) for the those who keep stricter laws. For heckershed meals, Zoe enjoys Char Bar and Brooklyn Sandwich Co., two GWorld options in the area! She also really enjoys the delicious vegan soup from Soupergirl, which comes to GW campus for pop-ups often.

Top 5 meals on GWorld:

  1. Turkey Curry Wrap at Brooklyn Sandwich Co.
  2. Burger from Char Bar
  3. Vegan Chili from Soupergirl
  4. Avocado Toast (with egg on top) via groceries from Whole Foods
  5. PBJ Bowl at South Block (great if you observe kosher as keeping dairy and meat separate since this place is exclusively dairy - but not heckshered)
  •