Students now have an additional option for spending their meal plans’ Flex Dollars, as Vital Vittles began accepting the plan for selected food products yesterday.

The Leavey Center grocery store is the fourth Corp-owned business, along with the Corp’s three campus coffee shops, to accept Flex Dollars.

The Corp has been aiming to integrate Vital Vittles into the university meal plan for several years. When the university announced that the meal plan would be changing in June, Corp representatives met with Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services Margie Bryant and decided to work toward introducing Flex Dollars at Vital Vittles.

Vittles director Greg Zlotnick (COL ’08) said that he and Ted Reilly (COL ’08), president and chief executive officer of the Corp, formed an agreement with Bryant over the summer to incorporate Vittles into the Flex Dollars plan. During the past month, the Corp and the university worked out the details of which items could be purchased with Flex Dollars.

“It was a very productive process. We look forward to working with Auxiliary Services and the university to expand options for students,” Zlotnik said.

The university was initially hesitant to allow Flex Dollars to be used at Vittles because the store sells items other than food, including tobacco, laundry aids and supplies, said Zlotnick. Together with the Office of Auxiliary Services, the Corp outlined a list of products that can be purchased with Flex Dollars. The product list will be updated each semester with the approval of the Office of Auxiliary Services.

Currently, approved products include sandwiches, salads, snacks, certain beverages, microwavable meals and produce. Zlotnick said Vittles would post its product list on its Web site and in the store within the next week.

“It is a fairly wide array of choices, but we’re looking to expand further,” he said.

Since the beginning of the semester, many customers of Vittles have asked whether they can use their Flex Dollars at the store, indicating an interest in the expansion, Zlotnick said.

Reilly said he expected Flex Dollars to boost sales at Vittles.

“Because the Corp has so many services, I definitely think it will help our business as students have more choice in what they want to eat and drink,” Reilly said.

Several students said they would likely take advantage of the new arrangements at Vittles.

“What I find Flex Dollars most useful for is lunch,” said Neil Barlow (COL ’09), who said he may use his meal plan to buy sandwiches at Vittles.

Katie Boran (COL ’09), who has a block 75 meal plan, said she might have purchased a meal plan that included Flex Dollars if Vittles accepted them when she chose her plan.

“I might have considered switching to the 10 meal plan if I had known,” she said.

Boran said she expected students who live across campus from O’Donovan Dining Hall to use Vittles more frequently now that it accepts Flex Dollars.

“I think it’s great for people who are up at Leavey a lot,” she said.

Jack Harrison (SFS ’09) said he would like to see more items accepted under the meal plan.

“What’s weird is that you can use [Flex Dollars] on anything in the coffee shops, but not equivalently healthy things [at Vittles],” he said.

The Corp will receive the earnings from their Flex Dollars sales from the university’s GOCard Services. The GOCard office will extract a small service fee for the use of the GOCard readers, Zlotnick said. Other than this fee, the Corp will receive the full amount of revenue generated from Flex Dollars sales.

The incorporation of Vittles into the meal plan is the first step towards further development, Zlotnick said. The Corp hopes to make Flex Dollars available at Hoya Snaxa, but no specific time frame has been established.

“We have the technology at Hoya Snaxa, but we’re looking into whether it would be feasible,” Reilly said.

The coffee shops run by the Corp were included in the Flex Dollars plan at the beginning of the semester because they serve food and drinks exclusively. With the addition of Hoya Snaxa, all five of the Corp’s food services would accept Flex Dollars.

“Really, it’s a cooperative effort with the university, so we can only go so far. But we’re always looking for ways to increase options for students,” Reilly said.