Dining
Dining Among Redwoods
There are 5 campus dining halls, cafes, markets, coffee shops, food trucks, produce pop-ups, and food pantries on campus. The Crown/Merrill Dining Hall is a short walk from the residences to a rotating buffet of meal options.
Your ID is your Meal Card
Students with a meal plan (Slug Points), Flexi Dollars, or Banana Bucks can swipe their ID Card or use the GET app to eat at any of the 5 dining halls. Dining halls are all-you-care-to-eat, buffet style dining.
Crown/Merrill Dining Hall
The Crown/Merrill Dining hall has a 20-foot salad bar, sandwich bar, indoor servery, and multiple beverage stations. Credit cards, meal plans, and flexi dollars accepted.
(831) 459-4619
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
7AM – 8PM
7AM – 8PM
7AM – 8PM
7AM – 8PM
7AM – 8PM
Monday – Friday
- Breakfast: 7 – 11AM
- Continuous Dining: 11 – 11:30AM (limited entree options)
- Lunch: 11:30AM – 2PM
- Continuous Dining: 2 – 5PM (limited entree options)
- Dinner: 5 – 8PM
Check UCSC Dining for the most updated hours. Hours are subject to change based on staffing, holidays, and scheduled breaks.
Farm to College
UCSC’s 30-acre campus farm provides UCSC Dining with seasonal organic fruits and vegetables, allowing students to enjoy farm-to-table produce! Our UCSC Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems supplies produce to the Cowell Coffee Shop, food pantries, and UCSC Basic Needs.
Baking at Dawn
UCSC Bakery staff work 2:00 – 5:30am every morning baking over 10,000 muffins, pastries, cookies, and other baked treats for the entire campus. Your baked goods are delivered to the dining calls, coffee shops, and cafés every morning in time for breakfast!
College Nights
Each college hosts College Night theme dinners in their dining hall as a special treat for their students. College Nights feature live entertainment, a special menu, decorations, and educational displays centered around a specific theme. Crown’s College Nights happen once a month, and students need only swipe their meal card for admission. For off-campus Crownies without a meal plan, a limited number of tickets are available for free in the Housing and Residential Education (HARE) Office before each College Night. For non-affiliated students living at Crown, please check in with office staff at the HARE Office.
Student Cooking
The Lionel Cantu Queer Resource Center located near KZSC between Crown and Merrill has an open kitchen for student use. They’d be happy to have you stop by!
Frequently Asked Questions
- Change your meal plan on the Student Housing Portal Online
- During the summer, and during specified filing periods in fall and winter quarters, you can change your meal plan for the following quarter.
Vegetarian and vegan options are always available. During non-peak times students may request if dishes are available without specific ingredients.
All Dining Halls follow the Allergy Icon System to identify foods that contain the most common allergens. You can these icons on the online menus and on the signs in the dining halls and cafes.
Menus rotate weekly, but let us know if there’s something you would like served more and we’ll try to accommodate!
Dining receives many applications. You may not immediately hear back because needs frequently change; it may be positions are currently full, but will open up next quarter. Your application is kept on file and will be contacted if there is an opening!
