Yes and no. It seems you're required to be on a meal plan. First-year students automatically (you might be able to downgrade) get a plan for $4019 which includes 400 meals and $75. Meals vary in price though.

So if you max out on dinners ($14.97), in theory, you can get 405 dinners which would cost a total of $5974. In other words, a meal plan saves you $1955 vs buying individual meals. If you eat all three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), the average meal would equal $12.19. In other words, you'd get $4951 worth of food for $4019.

To summarize, it seems the meal plan saves you money by giving you a discount. The problem (I assume) is that some students don't make use of their 400 meal swipes.

https://dining.tufts.edu/your-meal-plan/your-meal-plan-optio...