I can't speak to food questions. My kids' college has one cafeteria for the whole campus and *every*body complains about the food.
Also, there were no meal plan options -- it was every meal, all-you-can-eat, for everybody. But meal plan choice is one thing that gets sacrificed when the undergrad student body numbers less than a thousand....
Magickmaker tried just about every possible living arrangement -- double, single, double as a single, and a university-owned apartment with three friends. The apartment -- a townhouse, actually -- had a kitchen, but I didn't see much evidence that the girls used it. There was still a lot of complaining about the cafeteria.
There ought to be a page on the college website for Residence Life. They'll have a list of what he can and can't have in his room. You might have to dig for the info. Oh, and they may e-mail a lot of this info to Beorn, so you might remind him to keep checking his e-mail this summer for stuff from the school. Batty missed a couple of deadlines by being cavalier about reading e-mails from the school. (It's a wonder that child *enrolled*, let alone *graduated.*
)
Places like Bed, Bath & Beyond will let you order stuff online and have it shipped to the store closest to campus. Might save you some room in the car if you get certain things shipped. Also, Hollins had a sidewalk fair on campus during orientation week for stuff the girls forgot to bring from home -- bed risers, posters, etc. (Psst -- concrete blocks are cheaper than bed risers *and* give the kid more storage room underneath the bed. Moving them sucks, tho, so buy 'em when you get to campus.)
That's all I can think of offhand.