Colleges of Fenway

Your Fenway Card serves as access to the dining hall. For resident students, the cost of your room and board plan at Emmanuel includes fifteen meals per week with $95.00 “flex dollars” per semester. For no additional cost, students may choose nineteen meals per week with $25.00 flex dollars by contacting the Bon Appetit Dining Office at 617-735-9952. Flex Dollars may be used for extra meals or guests in the Marian Hall Dining Room or for purchases in the Atrium Café but may not be used at off-campus locations.

Commuters may purchase flex dollars through Bon Appetit to use in the Marian Hall Dining Room or the Atrium Café. Flex dollars may not be used at off-campus locations.

Fenway Cash and your Emmanuel College Meal Plan are separate accounts. Fenway Cash may be used at any of the dining halls within the Colleges of the Fenway; your Meal Plan and Flex Dollars may only be used at Emmanuel College.

The terminals at each Fenway Cash accepting location are programmed to authorize transactions by searching for funds in accounts eligible to be used at that location. If you have multiple accounts associated with your Fenway Card, it is not necessary to inform the cashier which account to be used.

Processing Logic

The processing system first looks for funds or points in the most restrictive account, then the next-most restrictive, and so on, until it has searched every account, if necessary, to authorize the transaction. The Meal Unit account is considered the most restrictive, since it can only be used at on-campus dining locations, and units in the account expire at the end of each day. For students participating in meal plans, the system looks for value in these accounts first. The Fenway Cash account is the least restrictive; it can be used at any Fenway Cash accepting location on or off-campus, and the balances roll over year to year. Therefore, on-campus dining locations always search the Meal Plan accounts before Fenway Cash. Marian Dining Hall accepts Meal Units, Flex Dollars and Fenway Cash. Atrium Café accepts Flex Dollars and Fenway Cash.

Split Transactions

If the total dollar cost of items being purchased at an on-campus dining location is greater than the balances in one or more accounts, but less than the total value in all accounts, the system will "split" the transaction between two or more accounts. Suppose a cardholder with $5 available in his or her Flex Dollars account and $50 in the Fenway Cash account wants to purchase items with a cost of $15 at the Atrium Café. The system will authorize the transaction by deducting the $5 from the Flex Dollars account (the more restrictive account) and the remaining $10 from the Fenway Cash account. If there are not sufficient points or balances in all accounts accessed by the Fenway Card, the system will not authorize the transaction. If only the Fenway Cash account has a balance, then all transactions will be authorized from that account.