Live off campus but miss those sweet, sweet hot cookie bars? With nuCuisine’s best kept secret, students out of the dorms can save money on every purchase without being on a meal plan. And yes, it does work on Allison Cajun Fridays.
The CINCH card, about the size of a CVS ExtraCare card, saves students 20 percent on every meal they pay for — not using a meal plan — in Northwestern dining halls. According to Pam Yee, district marketing manager for nuCuisine, the program started two or three years ago for customers not on a meal plan, such as faculty. Students who regularly purchased meals in dining halls caught on.
“We’ve definitely been able to reach more people,” Yee says. “Once [students] try it, they seem to like the options that are available, so they do keep coming back.”
To get a card, all you have to do is ask — really. Students can walk into dining halls and ask for a CINCH card before paying, and the card will become valid immediately. The process is slightly different for faculty and staff, who must present a coupon before getting a card.
“It’s easy, it’s a cinch,” Yee says.
Few students currently take advantage of the discount the CINCH program offers. Yee attributes this to nuCuisine’s inability to directly contact students who live off campus.
“We haven’t been able to find a great way to target the off-campus students because we don’t have their addresses,” she says. “There’s no other direct way to communicate with them.”
Yee speculated the program could also benefit students who have run out of meals or points at the end of the quarter, though this is not its intent.
“We’re always open to ideas,” she says.