Two months after Flex-Grubhub partnership rollout, Columbia students are slow to reap its benefits

Upper West Side NY

23 February, 2022

4:18 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY BELLA DRUCKMAN • FEBRUARY 22, 2022, 9:00 PM Share "On Sunday nights when the food in Hewitt is really bad and you don't have the time to go and pick something up, it's really convenient to order food online," Lauren Silver, BC '07, told Spectator in December 2004. Using the website Campusfood, the "largest nationwide network of restaurants linked to colleges" at the time, Silver and other students at Columbia's four undergraduate colleges could order from restaurants including Giovanni's Pizza, Taqueria y Fonda la Mexicana, and V&T Pizzeria. Despite the absence of their favorite restaurants on the website, the inability to use dining dollars or Flex points, and delivery minimums, Columbia students still landed the University on the list of the top 5 universities using Campusfood. By 2008, Columbia students could use their Flex points to order from Campusfood. 14 years later, food delivery on campus presents similar problems—and solutions—to a new generation of students. Beginning Dec. 17, 2021, Flex expanded to include Grubhub food delivery. All Columbia College, School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of General Studies, and graduate students on a meal plan with Flex points can connect their Flex account to their Grubhub account, giving them access to Grubhub+ Student memberships and more than 500 eateries to order from. Grubhub+ Student memberships provide unlimited free delivery, saving students from paying potentially high delivery fees. Despite these perks, there were only around 1,300 transactions on Grubhub using Flex in January 2022, with about 6,900 students on the meal plan. Adding food delivery services to Flex was one of the solutions Columbia Dining ideated when attempting to alleviate the lines that stretched out of the dining halls at the beginning of the fall semester. Now, with new dining hall options Chef Mike's Sub Shop and Faculty House decreasing dining hall crowds, food delivery offers a solution to a problem that has been largely addressed already. Still, many students use the Flex-Grubhub partnership because of its convenience. Christopher Nuñez, CC '24, started using his Flex points to order from Grubhub as soon as Columbia Dining announced the program in an email in the middle of finals season wishing students "happy ordering." Before his meal plan included Grubhub delivery services, Nuñez would order from UberEats because it provided him with coupons. But the combination of the ability to use Flex points, free delivery, and coupons when he orders from Grubhub persuaded Nuñez to switch delivery services. "I think it's just a convenient way to use it because a lot of the times … when I try to use [Flex] at Panda Express or something, it's always like, 'oh, Flex machine is down,'" Nuñez said. "So it's kind of an inconvenience. But if I do it through Grubhub, it's something that [works]." Nuñez has ordered from Grubhub only a few times since Columbia's initial collaboration with the delivery app because of the low number of Flex points his meal plan provides him with. Of the three meal plans that include Flex points, the number of points varies from 50 to 200 points. Students can use their Flex points to shop at restaurants and stores such as Chipotle, H Mart, and Morton Williams—Grubhub+ provides yet another option where students can spend their Flex points. Although Columbia Dining sent an email to all dining plan holders introducing the Flex Grubhub partnership, a lack of knowledge regarding how to connect Flex points to Grubhub has prevented some students from immediately using Grubhub as Nuñez did. Rachel Frank, GS/JTS '25, learned about the partnership recently. Previously using her Flex points to purchase food from local chains such as Shake Shack and DIG, Frank plans to take advantage of this partnership in the future because it is already included in her meal plan and is delivered directly to her door. Frank's reasoning applies to another group of individuals who have taken advantage of the Flex-Grubhub partnership: students afflicted with COVID-19. Although students in isolation are allowed to pick up meals from Faculty House between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. daily, there are 18 remaining hours of the day in which these students might desire a warm meal but cannot leave their dorm. Grubhub delivery promises a solution to this problem. Yet, other students remain disillusioned by the bells and whistles of Grubhub. Charlie Huang, CC '24, has a dining plan that allows him to use the dining halls approximately twice a day. When he has ordered food delivery in the past, he typically does so directly through the restaurant's website, bypassing delivery services. But Huang only orders food "occasionally." "I don't intend on using my Flex points for Grubhub, but it's not out of the picture. I wouldn't rule it out," Huang said. "I don't know what I plan on using my Flex points for and I don't think there's a particular advantage to using Flex for Grubhub when Flex is still taxable, and it's essentially just transferring money from my bank account to my Columbia ID." Meal plans for the 2022-23 academic year went live Feb. 21, welcoming an increase in the number of meal plans with Flex points. Whereas only three meal plans offered during the 2021-22 academic year provided students with Flex points, eight meal plans will include Flex points next year. "Delivery was an option the team had been working to execute for some time," Kristina Hernandez, executive director of marketing and communications for campus services, said in an email to Spectator. "Based on the high use by students so far, we adjusted the meal plan 'extras' so students with a plan can take advantage of Flex options and delivery as needed." Students can now choose if they want to increase their dining dollars, untaxed funds that can be used at every Columbia Dining location; Flex points, taxed funds that can be used on Grubhub and at establishments on and off-campus; or both. Perhaps students will echo the sentiments of Ben Collins, SEAS '05, who told Spectator in 2004, "Sometimes [food delivery is] nice when you don't want to talk to anyone." Arts and Entertainment Editor Bella Druckman can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @bella_druckman. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.