• A proposal for a new program called "Dining Dollars are the Difference" aims to give students the option of donating their unused Dining Dollars to charity.
• The donations will support the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee, a locally established food bank for the past 35 years.
• The program's concept is built upon Marquette University's Jesuit mission of feeding the poor and helping those who are less fortunate.

Because Dining Dollars do not carry over from semester to semester, the only choice students currently have is to use the meal credits — or lose them.

A proposal for a new program may give students another option that will put their unused Dining Dollars to good use.

Sam Toman, a senior in the College of Communication, created the proposal for the "Dining Dollars are the Difference" program. It would give students the option to donate unused Dining Dollars to charity at the end of each semester.

sStudents can use the 50, 100 or 150 Dining Dollars they receive with their meal plans at various locations throughout campus, including the Alumni Memorial Union and the Union Sports Annex.

According to the proposal, all proceeds would benefit the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee, a food bank that has been collecting, storing and distributing food to local soup kitchens, homeless shelters and food pantries for the past 35 years.

Toman said he came up with the idea for the program while eating in the AMU at the end of last semester.

"I overheard some students talking about all the Dining Dollars they had remaining from their meal plans," Toman said. "Then I heard one of them say, 'I wish I would have bought dinner for a homeless person so they wouldn't go to waste.' That comment just stuck with me, so I started trying to put that idea into motion."

Toman met with Dan Auger, general manager of Sodexo Campus Services, the independent food service provider for the university, last Friday.

"This money belongs to the students. Their parents pay for it, so the students should be able to do with it as they wish," Toman said. "I don't think students should be forced to 'use it, or lose it.' The 'Dining Dollars are the Difference' program would present an alternative."

For Hunger Task Force to receive any donations, Sodexo would have to approve the proposed program, Toman said.

Auger said discussions over the Dining Dollars proposal are in the preliminary stages.

"I'm going to be meeting with (Hunger Task Force) to develop a rapport, get an understanding of exactly what the organization does and review what kind of financial impact it would have on the organization if we do it," Auger said.

Although Auger said he didn't know the exact amount of Dining Dollars that went unused last semester, he said the leftover money goes back into the overall food service program.

Toman said, as he understands it, the unused money is like an "unused gift card," going back to the bottom line of the company to be used for fixed costs and overhead.

Sherrie Tussler, the executive director of Hunger Task Force, said she thinks Toman's program is a great idea.

"It's students doing what they can to help out, and I think it makes a heck of a lot of sense," Tussler said. "Sodexo themselves have donated to hunger missions before, so they're asking the right people to do it."

The Fall 2008 to Spring 2009 Dining Plans brochure booklet states that Sodexo "has been committed to being a driving and creative force that contributes to a hunger free nation."

Sodexo's Campus Kitchen Project at Marquette provides food donations, staff training and volunteers that help serve about 14,000 meals each year to the hungry in the Milwaukee area.

Tussler said demand for needed food in Milwaukee is up about 25 percent from August, and currently one in four Milwaukee children are going hungry.

If Hunger Task Force was to receive a cash grant from the donation of unused Dining Dollars, Tussler said that money would be used to buy canned foods, breakfast cereal, baby food, peanut butter and vegetables — things that aren't donated in large quantity.

Tussler also said the organization can buy bulk food at wholesale costs with donated funds.

"Our bulk buying power could definitely increase the total value of the donation," Tussler said.

Tussler and Toman said the "Dining Dollars are the Difference" concept is built upon Marquette's Jesuit mission.

"Marquette is a Jesuit institution, and this proposal is so consistent with the Jesuit mission of feeding the poor," Tussler said. "I think it teaches students about giving. It gives them the opportunity, even as young people in college, to be thoughtful givers.

"Now it's up to the leadership at Marquette and Sodexo themselves, and if they're interested in allowing the extra resources to be used to feed the hungry."

Auger said the proposal is still in an early phase.

"All it is, is a proposal right now. It has to go through several stages," Auger said. "But it's not going to die. We'll look at it together and figure something out that will work for everybody."