Penn State Dining

What Penn State Dining does

Penn State Dining operates as a service line within Penn State Housing and Food Services (HFS), a department of The Pennsylvania State University that delivers on-campus residential and dining services to students across 12 Pennsylvania campuses under the externally-facing LiveOn brand. The University Park flagship alone houses over 14,500 students out of approximately 46,000 undergraduates, while the eleven commonwealth campuses — Abington, Altoona, Beaver, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, Greater Allegheny, Harrisburg, Hazleton, Mont Alto, and Schuylkill — add roughly 5,900 beds of additional residential capacity. Service delivery occurs through university-owned residence halls, suite-style accommodations, and apartments paired with dining facilities ranging from all-you-care-to-eat dining commons (such as Dobbins Dining Hall at Behrend and Pollock Dining Commons at University Park) to retail cafes, convenience stores, food trucks, and fast-casual concepts across the system.

The technology stack is anchored by the id+ Card, the contactless campus credential providing access to housing, dining, and other university services, and by the eLiving online portal that administers housing requests, meal plan selection, and HFS contracts. Supporting infrastructure includes LionPATH billing integration, the LionCash prepaid spending account providing a 10% discount on qualifying campus and participating-merchant purchases, and the LionChat AI-assisted chatbot deployed on the LiveOn website for student support queries. Recent technology investments include a multi-year contactless card reader rollout at student apartments, suites, and bedrooms continuing through 2025 and a 2024 id+ Card redesign supporting the One Penn State 2025 digital campus initiative.

Revenue is generated through semester-based subscription contracts. The Campus Meal Plan — three tier levels ranging from $2,657 to $3,124 per semester for 2025-26, scheduled to rise to $2,737 to $3,218 for 2026-27 — is bundled into an all-inclusive HFS contract that pairs housing and dining in a single recurring charge and delivers roughly 65% off cash prices at dining commons; Level 2 is the default for any student with an active housing agreement. Supplementary streams include the Commuter Meal Plan (three tiers from $250 to $1,000 per semester), summer housing ($38 per night at Behrend), and the LiveOn Student Success Grant (approximately $12,000 over four years). Because first-year students at University Park and Behrend are required to live on campus as a condition of admission, the contract base is structurally guaranteed each academic year.

Name

Penn State Dining

Legal name

The Pennsylvania State University

Website

https://liveon.psu.edu

Company type

Public

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Penn State Dining, operating as Penn State Housing and Food Services under the LiveOn brand, delivers bundled on-campus housing and dining services at University Park and eleven Pennsylvania commonwealth campuses via the id+ Card, eLiving portal, and LionCash system.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

University Housing and Dining Services

NAICS

Restaurants and Other Eating Places (72251), Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets (722514), Food Service Contractors (72231), Rooming and Boarding Houses, Dormitories, and Workers' Camps (7213)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810), Services-To Dwellings & Other Buildings (7340)

akta.pro primary industry

Residential Dining & Meal Plans (EDALADAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Residential Dining Coordination & Meal Plan Integration (EDALACAK), Retail Dining & Quick Service (On-Campus) (EDALADAB), Food Service & Dining Operations Management (Managed Cafeterias) (EDAEALAG)

Keywords

• Campus dining services
• Student housing services
• University meal plans
• Residence life services
• Campus food service

Headquarters

HQ city

University Park

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices12 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Housing and Food Services (HFS) Contracts: Semester-based housing and meal plan contracts bundled together as an all-inclusive rate. Students pay through LionPATH account. The Campus Meal Plan defaults to level 2 for the academic year and is required for each semester with an active HFS Contract.
2. Campus Meal Plan: Semester-based meal subscription with three levels of dining dollars. Higher levels provide more dining dollars for students who eat more frequently on campus. The plan is accepted at every Campus Dining location.
3. Commuter Meal Plan: Optional meal plan for off-campus students offering 10% discount on qualifying purchases with three tier levels ($250, $500, $1000)
4. LionCash: Prepaid spending account accessed through id+ Card with 10% discount on qualifying purchases. Funds carry over year-to-year during enrollment and accepted at on-campus and participating off-campus merchants.
5. Summer Housing: Flexible summer housing options with custom arrival and departure dates at affordable rates ($38 per night at Behrend)

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Penn State Dining, operating under the LiveOn brand within Penn State Housing and Food Services, provides on-campus residential and food services to students at Penn State's University Park and 11 Commonwealth campuses. Core offerings include residence halls and apartments, all-you-care-to-eat dining commons, retail cafes and markets, and semester-based meal plans bundled with housing through the Housing and Food Services contract.

Product overview

Penn State Dining, operating under the LiveOn brand, provides comprehensive on-campus housing and food services across Penn State's 12 Commonwealth campuses and University Park. The service portfolio consists of two integrated components: on-campus housing (residence halls, suites, and apartments) serving over 14,500 students at University Park alone across multiple housing areas including East, North, Pollock, South, and West Halls, plus specialized options like Nittany Apartments & Suites and White Course Graduate & Family Apartments; and campus dining services including all-you-care-to-eat dining commons, coffee shops, convenience stores, food courts, and fast casual locations across all campuses. Supporting services include the Campus Meal Plan (providing up to 65% discount for frequent diners), LionCash prepaid account, and Commuter Meal Plan, all managed through the eLiving student portal. First-year students at Behrend and University Park are required to live on campus as a condition of admission, with housing guaranteed.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Campus Meal Plan
• Commuter Meal Plan
• LionCash
• Summer Housing
• University Park Residence Halls and Apartments
• Living Learning Communities
• eLiving Student Portal
• LionChat AI Assistant
• Student Employment in Housing and Dining
• LiveOn Student Success Grant

Quantifiable outcome

• 65% off cash prices at dining commons with Campus Meal Plan
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Swipe Out HungercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2024Fifth consecutive year partnership with nonprofit Swipe Out Hunger for annual 'Swipe Out Hunger' campaign encouraging students to donate dining dollars to address student food insecurity. Campaign runs annually during fall semester across all Penn State campuses.
• Saikou SushiminorOthersMechanicsburg-based sushi company furnishes sushi and poke products to dining commons at Penn State University Park. Donated $1 per box sold on Homecoming Gameday (approximately 1,300 boxes) plus $1,500 to Central PA Food Bank. Plans similar donations during March Madness.

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Chartwells Higher Education (Compass Group): Compass Group subsidiary focused on college and university dining management contracts across North America. Comparable as a broad incumbent that performs the same function Penn State HFS delivers in-house at other institutions.
• Aramark (Higher Education): Major third-party food service and dining-management contractor serving hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities. Comparable as the outsourced alternative operating model that in-house Penn State HFS competes against when universities evaluate managed services vs. self-operation.

Direct peers

• Ohio State University Dining Services: Operates dining and meal-plan services across Ohio State's Columbus campus and regional campuses, with mandatory first-year meal plans and a campus card system. Directly comparable to Penn State Dining in scale, mission, and student-services structure at a flagship Big Ten public university.
• Indiana University Residential Dining: Operates campus dining and meal plans at IU Bloomington and regional campuses through the CrimsonCard. Comparable in operating dining commons, retail concepts, and tiered meal plans at another Big Ten peer institution.
• Texas A&M University Dining Services: Operates residential dining, retail, and meal plans across Texas A&M's College Station campus. Comparable in operating large-scale dining commons and required meal plans for first-year students at a major public state university.
• Purdue University Dining Services: Operates dining courts and meal plans at Purdue using the Purdue ID card. Directly comparable residential-dining model with mandatory first-year plans and dining-commons-based all-you-care-to-eat service.
• University of Wisconsin–Madison Dining Services: Runs dining halls, retail venues, and meal plans at UW-Madison using the Wiscard. Comparable in scale, residential-dining structure, and use of campus-card-linked meal accounts at a flagship Big Ten public university.
• Michigan State University Dining Services: Manages residential dining, retail, and meal plans across MSU's East Lansing campus using the Spartan Card. Comparable in scale and structure to Penn State's LiveOn operation at a peer Big Ten institution with a strong on-campus living tradition.
• University of Michigan Dining Services: Runs campus dining halls, retail concepts, and the MCard-based meal plans at one of Penn State's closest academic and athletic peers. Comparable in serving a large residential public-university population with a tiered meal-plan structure and digital campus card.

Others

• Transact Campus Cards: Provider of campus ID and payment platforms used by colleges to power meal plans, dining dollars, and door access. Comparable as the underlying technology ecosystem that supports Penn State's id+ Card, eLiving, and LionCash infrastructure.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/pennstatelionsgate
• Instagraminstagram.com/liveonschuylkill
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pennstatedining

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Penn State Dining