Grubhub and Red Card Athletics have launched a partnership aimed at making it easier for student athletes to use their Red Card funds at dietitian-approved restaurants through the Grubhub platform. Red Card, which supports over 100 athletic departments across the United States, is known for its mobile technology that helps schools feed athletes, track food purchases, and manage budgets.
The integration with Grubhub expands access for student athletes by allowing them to use their Red Card funds both on and off campus. Previously, using Red Card required merchants to have specific hardware on-site, which limited where athletes could spend their funds.
According to Grubhub, "We’ve unlocked new product capabilities by adding Red Card Athletics as a new tender type in Grubhub, enabling on-campus and off-campus ordering for student-athletes, with streamlined onboarding, no hardware requirements, and Grubhub+ benefits." The company highlighted several updates such as enhanced onboarding flows with setup guides in both the Grubhub and Red Card apps. These guides help users link accounts, confirm campus affiliation, and activate payment options. The verification process has also been updated to ensure only eligible athletes can access these funds.
The partnership allows student athletes to select from school-approved merchant lists that now include both campus dining programs and local off-campus restaurants. The system also uses geo-targeted offers and provides complimentary Grubhub+ membership to encourage more students to use the service beyond just those initially targeted by the partnership.
Payments are processed in real time when students choose Red Card as their payment method at checkout at approved locations. Student-athletes can view their fund balances and see which locations accept the card within the Red Card app. All participating athletes receive complimentary GH+ benefits.
For athletic directors and dietitians, the dashboard provided by Red Card makes it easier to allocate meal funds without extra hardware or maintenance needs. It also tracks spending data and receipts for better oversight of nutrition compliance and budget management. Tax-exempt certifications are supported within the system.
Merchants benefit from access to new sources of revenue since they can now accept digital payments from student athlete meal plans without additional equipment or manual processes. On-campus dining venues have full integration into Grubhub’s point-of-sale systems while approved off-campus restaurants are listed in-app for pickup or delivery orders with payments routed directly into existing accounting systems.
Currently active at more than 50 higher education institutions, this integration is expected to expand further during the academic year as new features are introduced. As stated by Grubhub: "The Grubhub Product teams are constantly seeking to deliver a revolutionary dining experience for all higher education dining scenarios. This integration is already active at more than 50 higher education institutions. As the school year progresses, we look forward to continued expansion and rolling out new features that make the integration an even better experience for all users."