For the month of February, students have a new alternative to pay for Krishna Lunch.
This year’s annual Bateman Case Study Competition, hosted by the Public Relations Students Society of America, has UF students rolling out a “What’s Your POPPING POINT” campaign. It is designed to increase the popularity of a new person-to-person payment service, Popmoney.
In an effort to integrate the new service into “the spirit of the university” as much as possible, students in the campaign partnered with Krishna Lunch to test run Popmoney for the month, said Jessica Sheldon, a 21-year-old UF public relations senior.
“Krishna Lunch is a huge part of UF’s culture,” she said. “Part of the instructions in the competition brief was to incorporate the culture of the university.”
The service works via the Popmoney website or application on a smartphone or tablet and allows anyone with an Internet connection to pay for his or her lunch without needing to carry cash or a credit card.
By setting up a free person-to-person account, users can send and receive money without giving the other party their banking information. Sending money incurs a 95-cent fee, but receiving money is free.
Customers of certain banks, such as PNC and SunTrust, do not have to pay the fee, Sheldon said.
Krishna Lunch, which already accepts payments in the form of cash and credit cards, welcomed the new payment system, said Caitanya Long, the vice president of Krishna House and Krishna Lunch cashier.
An added incentive to using Popmoney for Krishna Lunch is that it does not cost the organization anything, unlike Square, the current credit card reading service used by Krishna Lunch.
Square keeps a percentage of each transaction, meaning that using a credit card to buy Krishna Lunch comes with a 14-cent upcharge for the customer.
A frequent customer of Krishna Lunch, Patrick Joseph, a 21-year-old UF family, youth and community sciences and criminology senior, said he would use the new service.
“The line doesn’t get long enough usually where that would be completely necessary,” he said, “but that would be pretty cool.”
In addition to offering Popmoney at Krishna Lunch, students working on the campaign are hosting a Guinness World Record-breaking attempt on Feb. 25 in the Reitz ballroom, said Gillian Stoney, a 21-year-old UF public relations senior.
She said as a team, they hope to break the record for the most people popping bubble wrap at the same time.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 2/10/2014 under the headline "Students want UF popping dollars"]
