My alma mater solved this issue by making the compulsory "meal plan" a credit for the campus wide system so you could eat in the residence dining hall (which wa

My alma mater solved this issue by making the compulsory "meal plan" a credit for the campus wide system so you could eat in the residence dining hall (which was relatively cheap) or spend the credit at various food courts on campus (more expensive, but there is a Subway, McDonalds, etc. etc. as well as various non-franchised options). The second term, they added the credit on a weekly basis because a bunch of students had run out of credit before the end of the first term ... which, as our psychology department pointed out, was a completely predictable eventuality.