Swarthmore College is now collaborating with the food delivery app Grubhub, according to a campus-wide email from Director of Campus Services Anthony Condo. He explained that community members would be able to pay for orders with Garnet Cash. Garnet Cash is the prepaid declining balance account offered to students through the college, which functions like a debit card. All community members can also avoid delivery fees for orders over $18 with a free membership to Grubhub’s premium subscription service, Grubhub+.
In an email to The Phoenix, Condo spoke about the purpose of the college’s partnership with Grubhub. He emphasized that it was primarily made to support students over breaks when the Dining Center has limited hours, as well as provide student organizations a way to eliminate the need for reimbursements by the Student Budgeting Committee (SBC) while traveling or hosting catered events.
Condo explained that the partnership was tested before it was officially launched to obtain feedback. Additionally, Grubhub was chosen over its competitors because of its convenience for the college.
“We were trying to figure out some additional dining options for students, especially during times when the campus dining locations are closed or have limited hours such as Fall Break, Winter Break and Spring Break,” Condo said. “Grubhub was already integrated with our OneCard system vendor, CBORD, which made for an easy implementation.”
Students have expressed mixed opinions on the program. Although some students acknowledged that Grubhub is convenient to use, they had qualms about the limitations of the program, including Garnet Cash being the only option for payment through the OneCard system, as opposed to including Dining Dollars and Swat Points. Students also voiced complaints about the number of restaurants available on the app and the costs of delivery compared to its competitors.
Sharon Liu ’26 told The Phoenix that she made a delivery order on Grubhub using her OneCard after receiving Garnet Cash for being a host during Discover Swarthmore 2023. Despite the convenience of the app, Liu remarked that the minimum order amount limited its usefulness.
“I think it was good, but you still have to [order] at least $18 to get free delivery,” she said. “It’s nice to have free delivery, but if you don’t want to order that much, it’s not that helpful.”
Similar to Liu, Hillary Tran ’27 remarked that she still had some reservations about using the app.
“I’m not sure if I’m still incentivized to use Grubhub because I am using Garnet Cash, and I’m a little uneasy about using it. I think it would be nicer if I got to use Dining Dollars,” she said.
Tran talked about how smooth the process of communicating with Grubhub’s customer service was for her when she mistakenly made a pickup order instead of a delivery order on the app, but emphasized that Grubhub’s layout is more confusing than its competitors.
“[UberEats and DoorDash] have about the same interface. But Grubhub is a little different – it does distinguish delivery and pickup, but I didn’t really look at that directly because the other ones are all automatically [set to] delivery,” she said.
Ruthie Njagi ’25 told The Phoenix about her experience trying Grubhub, stating that the app was difficult to use, and that many of the restaurants in Swarthmore Borough were not available on the app.
“With the partnership, I was hoping for some of the Ville restaurants, like 320 Market Café, Bamboo Bistro and Renato Pizza being on the app,” said Njagi. “It’d be nice if we could deliver with them using Garnet Cash, but when you go to the Swarthmore restaurants tab [on Grubhub], [there are] not any.”
Njagi added that Grubhub’s competitors, particularly DoorDash, typically offer the same services for a lower price point, even when taking into consideration Grubhub+’s cut delivery costs.
“Even without [Doordash’s premium service] DashPass, DoorDash gives free delivery or [discounts] your meal if you spend a certain amount of money,” she remarked, “DoorDash is still cheaper than GrubHub because Grubhub [charges extra] fees and taxes. I felt like I spent more than I usually do.”
Njagi remarked that the program would be more successful if the college had partnered with a more appealing competitor.
“I feel like it’s sad that they went through all of this to be with Grubhub. A big thing that would help this partnership in the future is getting a different app, even if it was UberEats. If they have to stick with Grubhub, I think getting restaurants in the Ville on the app would help them get more involvement.”
Tran disagreed, stating that her order on Grubhub was cheaper than what it typically costs on other delivery apps.
“I order the same thing every time. [When I ordered on Grubhub], it was about $15 cheaper because I did not have to pay for delivery. It was pretty nice,” she said.
The partnership between the college and Grubhub is not the only initiative on campus to increase food diversity for students – the Student Government Organization (SGO) has plans to possibly incorporate Swat Points into either Kung Fu Tea or TSAoCAA Bubble Tea in Media, PA. This effort is spearheaded by SGO Vice President Danika Grieser ’26, Chair of Student Life Committee Sadie Gilman ’23.5, Chair of Academic Affairs Yosué Gonzáles ’24, and Chair of Outreach Committee Amane Miura ’25.
SGO President Olivia Medeiros-Sakimoto ’24.5 spoke with The Phoenix about these plans, commenting on current food options on campus and potential directions for future growth.
“When Danika Grieser ’26 and I ran last year, one of the campus-wide initiatives we set for the 2023-2024 academic year specified establishing a boba location, either on or off campus, that would accept either Swarthmore meal plan swipes or currency, such as Swat Points or Dining Dollars,” she remarked. “Our intention was, and still is, to add more delight to Swarthmore, however possible.”
Medeiros-Sakimoto emphasized the difficulty of integrating Swat Points into a new merchant location, stating that although college administrators understand the positive impact that access to boba would have for students, it is up to businesses whether or not they choose to partner with the college. Swat Points participating merchants are subject to a small transaction fee, roughly equivalent to that of a credit card fee, and because of this, some businesses choose to not participate.
“Now that the administration knows this is a student interest, it depends more so on the response from Kung Fu Tea or TSAoCAA [Bubble Tea],” she said. “The school can reach out to these businesses, but we need to prepare ourselves for the case that we might want them, and they might not want us.”
When asked about the Grubhub program, Medeiros-Sakimoto stated that Garnet Cash being the sole option for payment in the program is a barrier for many community members, and the program has the potential to create waste. However, she emphasized that the program is a step in the right direction.
“It demonstrates that the administration is listening to student concerns regarding campus dining options. [However], I understand the Sustainability Office’s concern for the amount of non-compostable waste that delivery orders create on campus,” she said.
Students, when asked about what direction they would like the Grubhub program and future food initiatives like it to go, suggested adding Swat Points into future iterations of the program.
When asked whether this was possible, Condo replied that the college had discussed Swat Points as an option. However, there were additional impacts of the program that needed to be considered before implementing an expansion that involved meal plan currencies.
“There are some factors that need to be further analyzed such as the budgetary impact of additional funds being spent off-campus, the potential impact of additional landfill waste being brought onto campus, additional carbon output from vehicles delivering food to campus, and from a security standpoint, the potential influx of outsiders,” stated Condo.
What also further complicates the addition of Swat Points into the plan is the potential negative effect on revenue for restaurants in the Ville.
“When the off-campus merchant program was started in 2016, one of the driving factors was to strengthen the support of the local community and ensure businesses would be supported by the college,” said Condo. “Adding Swat Points as a form of payment would take some revenue away from our local small business partners and could really hurt the future of their [businesses].”
Can our students do anything but complain?