Dining will debut weekend meals in the fall

Dining Services will offer weekend brunches and dinners at Hill House and Stouffer dining halls beginning next fall, according to Director Bill Canney. In addition to the current meal plan options, students will be able to purchase 14- or 19-meal contracts for the next academic year. Canney said the weekend meals will cost $4.60 more than weekday meals because of the additional costs of providing service on weekends. The move comes in response to Dining Services surveys over the last two years in which the majority of the 3,000 students polled expressed interest in the renewal of weekend meal plans. These surveys matched findings by the Cornyn Fasano Group, an independent food services consulting firm which has been studying Penn dining. Stage one of Cornyn Fasano's report -- released in late February -- indicated that over 70 percent of undergraduates expressed interest in a weekend brunch option, while 77.2 percent of underclassmen living on campus showed interest in a Sunday dinner. Approximately half of undergraduates living off campus and a quarter of the graduate students polled also favored a Sunday dinner option. Next fall, Hill and Stouffer dining halls will be open from noon to 7 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. Sundays, since students surveyed indicated a preference for earlier Saturday dinners. The extra hour on Sundays is designed to allow students returning to the University after a weekend away to have time for the meal, Canney said. Weekend dining was eliminated several years ago after Dining Services consistently failed to break even on weekend meals. But Canney said he hopes such high student interest is a good indication of the profitability of the meals. He added that in addition to the increased convenience of weekend meals, he believes on-campus dining will improve student safety. Based on the success of the weekend meals in Hill and Stouffer, the program may be extended to other dining halls, Canney said. The University's Kosher Dining -- which already provides Saturday meals -- is also considering a Sunday meal option, according to Dining Services Contract Coordinator Adam Sherr, who runs the kosher programs.