Purpose: To examine the association between college students' dietary patterns and frequency of purchasing food/beverages from campus area venues, purchasing fast food, and bringing food from home.

Design: Cross-sectional Student Health and Wellness Study.

Setting: One community college and one public university in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.

Subjects: Diverse college students living off campus (n = 1059; 59% nonwhite; mean [SD] age, 22 [5] years).

Measures: Participants self-reported sociodemographic characteristics and frequency of purchasing food/beverages around campus, purchasing fast food, and bringing food from home. Campus area purchases included à la carte facilities, vending machines, beverages, and nearby restaurants/stores. Dietary outcomes included breakfast and evening meal consumption (d/wk) and summary variables of fruit and vegetable, dairy, calcium, fiber, added sugar, and fat intake calculated from food frequency screeners.

Analysis: The associations between each purchasing behavior and dietary outcomes were examined using t-tests and linear regression.

Results: Approximately 45% of students purchased food/beverages from at least one campus area venue ≥3 times per week. Frequent food/beverage purchasing around campus was associated with less frequent breakfast consumption and higher fat and added sugar intake, similar to fast-food purchasing. Bringing food from home was associated with healthier dietary patterns.

Conclusion: Increasing the healthfulness of campus food environments and promoting healthy food and beverage purchasing around campuses may be an important target for nutrition promotion among college students.