Students who live off campus and can’t find the time to shop for groceries now have an alternative to standing in the checkout lines in Gainesville.
The College Cuisine, a food delivery service that caters to college students in off-campus apartments, recently became available to UF students.
When students order meal plans on The College Cuisine website, the company organizes packages of 25 to 26 LiveSmart meals from Schwan’s Home Service.
The food is delivered to students’ apartment complexes every two weeks. Most of the meals are frozen or refrigerated.
Karen Schmidt, founder of the New Smyrna Beach-based company, said she came up with the idea when her daughter left for college in Orlando.
Schmidt’s daughter was living in an off-campus apartment for the first time, and Schmidt said she wanted to find a way to help keep healthy food in her kitchen.
“I thought there would be a lot of other students in her situation,” she said. “There’s shopping, planning, budgeting and cooking meals, and sometimes students don’t have time to cook and start relying on fast food.”
Schmidt said she expanded her company after she started receiving calls and interest from students at other universities.
The College Cuisine began at the University of Central Florida, Valencia College, Rollins College, Seminole State College of Florida and Full Sail University in January.
The service became available to UF students last month, she said.
The College Cuisine offers six meal plan packages to choose from. All of the packages include breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts and snacks. Some food options include biscuits, muffins, pizza, pasta, hamburgers, smoothies and ice cream.
Prices range from about $90 to $100, depending on the package.
Jorge Chavez, a 21-year-old microbiology senior at UF, said he would try the off-campus meal plan, but he is not sure he would stick with it for a whole semester.
“I usually buy frozen food, but the packages seem expensive for only two weeks,” he said. “I usually only spend around $50 a week when I eat out and around $30 when I shop for food.”
