Being a college student comes with stress, responsibilities and often a need for food and groceries. In addition to paying for tuition and books each semester, undergraduate students are charged $350 for Dining Dollars, which are loaded onto their ACT card account so they can buy meals, coffee and even groceries from participating stores.

Dining Dollars can be used at all Bama Dining locations, which includes Starbucks, dining halls and some foods trucks. They can also be used at some off-campus restaurants like Buffalo Phils, Dominos and – more recently – Newks, Ajian, Papa Johns, Glory Bound and Ugo, an app that delivers food and groceries to a person’s doorstep. Bama Dining announced the additions in an email to students on Feb. 22.

“The Dining Dollars program is designed to supplement a student’s campus dining needs,” according to the Bama Dining website. “The $350 Dining Dollars equals about $20.59 per week or $2.94 per day.”

Students can keep track of how many Dining Dollars they have left by logging in to the Blackboard eAccounts app with their myBama username and password, and their account information is right there just like a bank account app.

“The best part about Dining Dollars is having money already budgeted out for you to spend on food,” said Abby Zielinski, a freshman majoring in political science.

Food trucks have been popular among students since they arrived on campus because they provide fast service and good quality food in a convenient location.

“My favorite place to use Dining Dollars is all the different food trucks,” said Zack Rose, a freshman majoring in business. “The food trucks are usually set up right outside of my dorm or my classes, so being able to just stop by quickly and use my ACT card is really convenient.”

Before dining locations can accept Dining Dollars from students, they all have to go through a process to get certified.

“To receive Dining Dollars, food trucks must first complete the necessary documentation to

become a food truck vendor on campus,” said Amanda Hare, marketing coordinator for Bama Dining. “This includes completing a signed agreement with Aramark, providing their business license and Certificate of Insurance, among many other documents, with risk management and The University of Alabama. Once approved, the food truck then is provided the option to accept Dining Dollars.”

The Bama Dining marketing team has not had to deal with a lot of denial from dining locations when asking restaurants about allowing students to use Dining Dollars at their business.

“There have not been a lot of places denied the capability of accepting Dining Dollars,” Hare said. “Those that have been denied have only been denied due to either not submitting the paperwork by the deadline or not meeting the minimum criteria.”

The minimum criteria refers to the agreement businesses have to sign and providing their business license and Certificate of Insurance. As Dining Dollars move forward, they will take into account what students want and the new dining trends that develop.

“Dining Dollars has traditionally been an on-campus program and has been successful in aiding community building and enhancing the overall dining program at UA,” Hare said. “Moving forward, we will evaluate dining trends, customer demand and campus growth before making a decision about the further expansion of Dining Dollars.”