Campus Dining

University Park Campus Dining is one of the largest university food service organizations in the country, purchasing over $40 million in goods each year. Campus dining commons alone serve approximately 1.4 million meals each semester. Currently, Penn State serves over 14,000 on-campus residents, and 14,000 Lion Cash members.

Penn State offers food service to student, faculty, and staff populations through five on-campus dining commons, multiple retail operations, professional catering, and coffee shops. Enhancing our students’ residential experience through quality and innovation is a priority at Penn State.

In terms of food, labor, operating expenditures, number of board plan members and cash transactions, Penn State’s Campus Dining has been ranked one of the largest by Food Service Director Magazine. Annual food service sales of over $85 million has placed Penn State among the top 100 self-operated college food service departments. Penn State purchases approximately 900,000 cookies from the Penn State Bakery; 443,000 lbs. of cheese; 1.08 million lbs. of chicken products; 150,000 lbs. of turkey breast, 553,000 lbs. of frozen French fries; 1,800 lbs. of Lucky Charms cereal, 215,000 gallons of Creamery milk; and 144,000 lbs. of fresh tomatoes per year.

Penn State Campus Dining is Education.

Penn State Campus Dining oversees Cafe Laura, Hospitality Management (HM) food service operation. Our management staff at Cafe Laura works with Penn State Hospitality Management students to teach cooking and management skills in a state-of-the-art kitchen, while providing front and back of the house experience. A culinary apprentice program is offered to students through dining services. University Park and several of our campuses collaborates with the HM school to provide management internships to students each semester.

Retail Dining

With retail locations in the Business Building, Pattee Library, HUB-Robeson Center, White Building, IM Building, Kern Graduate Building, Westgate Building, Zoller Gallery and the Lewis Katz Building, offering a mix of national brands and one-of-kind restaurants, serving students, faculty, staff and visitors to the university. Retail Operations serve 25,000 guests every day during the school year.

Dining Commons

Residential dining at University Park offers five convenient locations across campus: North, South, East, West, and Pollock areas. There are dozens of great options for students to get the most from their meal plan–morning, noon, and night! Penn State offers one of the most flexible meal plans in the country. Residential Dining offers all-you-care-to-eat (one price/meal), ala carte options (pay/item), and convenience stores.