Dining Plan FAQ

The tax exempt Dining Plan funds can be used to purchase meals on campus. Taxable snack items such as carbonated beverages, granola bars, frozen yogurt, pastries and confectionery items can only be purchased with the Taxable Plan or Flex funds, unless you purchase these items as part of a prepared meal. In order to maximize your savings and the use of your Dining Plan funds, purchase beverages and desserts as part of your meal. 

The following items are not, in and of themselves, considered a meal by the Canada Revenue Agency (see Part III of Schedule V) and cannot be purchaschased with the Taxable Plan or Flex dollars, unless you purchase these items as part of a prepared meal. In order to maximize your savings and the use of your Meal Plan funds, purchase beverages and desserts as part of your meal.

The following items are not, in and of themselves, considered a meal by the Canada Revenue Agency and cannot be purchased with Meal Plan funds, unless they are purchased as part of a meal:

• carbonated beverages;
  • non-carbonated fruit juice beverages or fruit flavoured beverages, other than milk-based beverages, that contain less than 25% by volume of
    • (i) a natural fruit juice or combination of natural fruit juices, or
    • (ii) a natural fruit juice or combination of natural fruit juices that have been reconstituted into the original state, or goods that, when added to water, produce a beverage in this paragraph:
• candies, confectionery that may be classed as candy, or any goods sold as candies, such as candy floss, chewing gum and chocolate, whether naturally or artificially sweetened, and including fruits, seeds, nuts and popcorn when they are coated or treated with candy, chocolate, honey, molasses, sugar, syrup or artificial sweeteners;
• chips, crisps, puffs, curls or sticks (such as potato chips, cheese puffs, potato sticks, bacon crisps and cheese curls), other similar snack foods or popcorn and brittle pretzels, but not including any product that is sold primarily as a breakfast cereal;
• salted nuts or salted seeds;
• granola products, but not including any product that is sold primarily as a breakfast cereal;
• snack mixtures that contain cereals, nuts, seeds, dried fruit or any other edible product, but not including any mixture that is sold primarily as a breakfast cereal;
• ice lollies, juice bars, flavoured, coloured or sweetened ice waters, or similar products, whether frozen or not;
• ice cream, ice milk, sherbet, frozen yoghurt or frozen pudding, non-dairy substitutes for any of the foregoing, or any product that contains any of the foregoing, when packaged or sold in single servings;
• fruit bars, rolls or drops or similar fruit-based snack foods;
• cakes, muffins, pies, pastries, tarts, cookies, doughnuts, brownies, croissants with sweetened filling or coating, or similar products […] but not including bread products, such as bagels, English muffins, croissants or bread rolls, without sweetened filling or coating;
• beverages (other than unflavoured milk) or pudding, including flavoured gelatin, mousse, flavoured whipped dessert product or any other products similar to pudding
• beverages dispensed at the place where they are sold
• food or beverages sold through a vending machine