Starting University is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A Meal Plan ensures your child eats well, feels well, and thrives academically and socially.
Sending your child to university is a huge milestone, not just for them, but for you too.
You want them to settle in, make friends, stay healthy, and succeed academically. But the reality of student life can be overwhelming: new surroundings, a demanding schedule, and the challenge of managing everything, including food.
Health & Wellbeing
You know they’re eating properly, not skipping meals or surviving on pasta and takeaways
Time for What Matters
With no cooking or cleaning, they can focus on studying and enjoying university life
A Supportive Start
Eating in shared dining halls helps them meet new friends and feel at home faster
Better Grades, Better Experience
A healthy diet means better concentration, energy, and overall success
Peace of mind for you, and the best possible start for them.
A Meal Swipe is the ‘currency’ of the Meal Plan system,and one Meal Swipe equals one meal.
Once purchased, Meal Plans are loaded onto students’ campus cards. It keeps things simple, so that they always have access to their plan.
One card swipe = one meal in any of our six campus dining venues, open from 8am–9pm.
Many operate buff-style, so your child can enjoy huge variety of dishes, all while sticking to a fixed cost that you can plan for.
All our food is made from fresh ingredients by professional chefs.
STUDENTS LOVE THE CONVENIENCE AND THE CHANCE TO TRY FOOD FROM AROUND THE WORLD, AND PARENTS CAN BE REASSURED THAT THEIR CHILD IS EATING WELL EVERY DAY.
We’re proud to offer a service that does more than just feed students. it supports their success. Students on meal plans consistently report better focus, improved wellbeing, and higher satisfaction with their university experience.
We work with Menus of Change, a global initiative developed by Standford University and the Culinary Institute of America. It brings together nutrition science, environmental sustainability, and culinary innovation to help institutions like ours serve food that’s both healthy and responsible.
At the University of Reading, we use Menus of Change to guide how we plan meals, making sure they’re:
Nutritious
Supporting student health and brain function
Sustainable
using local, seasonal, and responsibly sourced ingredients
Delicious
Created by chefs with variety, flavour and student satisfaction in mind
We don’t just feed students; we help them form better eating habits for life.
We offer different plans to suit all needs and budgets.
3 Meals a day
Unlimited
£106.40 per week
By far the most popular plan, used by around 70% of our students. In addition to all of the gold plan benefits, this plan includes 3 meals per day (21 meal swipes per week) accompanied by a hot drink with each meal.
This plan is inclusive of rooms rented in Dunsden Crescent, Wantage, and Windsor Halls.
2 Meals a day
14 Swipes a week
£81.13 per week
Popular with self-catered students, this plan is designed to cover 2 main meals of your choice per day. It consists of 14 meal swipes per week, accompanied by a hot drink with each meal.
1 Meal a day
7 Swipes a week
£48.30 per week
This plan gives you 7 meal swipes per week to cover your main meal each day, accompanied by a hot drink.
3 Swipes a week
£22.61 per week
This plan gives you 3 meal swipes per week, accompanied by a hot drink. The plan operates as rolling credit, meaning your swipes can roll over each week, all the way up until the end of term.
Although we don’t offer finance on for our meal plans, we do understand that it is a financial commitment, and life is full of them! To discuss payment schedule options on any of our plans you can email. clevercuisine@reading.ac.uk
We are experienced in helping both students and parents, so have usually come across most issues and will have suggestions on how to address them. We treat every student as an individual and our focus is trying to and a solution that suits their needs.
We prioritise face-to-face communication as we can usually address questions and issues in a discussion much faster, as we also can ask the questions we need to. Please encourage your student to book a time via email.
If you are worried about your child’s eating habits, dietary requirements, or food choices, then you can also encourage them to email us.
DATA PROTECTIONGDPR (UK Data Protection) legislation protects student accounts, so we do have to act in accordance with this. A student can give consent for us to share information with you, and this needs to be done, by them emailing us from their University Student Email without you copiedin, to give consent. This applies once they have enrolled. You can email us without this in place and we can give general advice about meal plans. Students must use their university email address to communicate with us once enrolled.