Food trucks could be rolling onto campus next semester to bring a few more dining options to hungry students. Student government and Student Activities are working together to bring the mobile meals to campus.
Matt Burchett, director of Student Activities, said a food truck trial run will launch within the next several weeks to find which on-campus locations prove the most popular for student diners. The food trucks may pop up by Moody Memorial Library and several other spots at Baylor.
Kaufman junior Stephen Gentzel, a co-chair on Student Senate’s Campus Improvements and Affairs Committee, said he would like to cycle through food trucks that are popular with students, such as Xristo’s Cafe. However, Student Activities has not yet announced which food trucks might be brought to campus.
Student government is also polling students to find which location for the food trucks they would like best. Students can say where they’d most like the trucks on Student Senate’s OrgSync page.
Burchett said Student Activities must assess the popularity of the food trucks before it can dedicate the time and resources necessary to bringing them to campus full-time.
“This is all an exploratory timeframe,” Burchett said. “We’ve seen that they’re quite popular at big events, but we need to see whether that translates to every day.”
Gentzel said when student government and Student Activities finalize the location for the food trucks, as well as the budget allotted to the project, a concrete slab will be poured and other improvements made to bring the designated site up to food health and safety codes.
Gentzel helped write legislation to dedicate a portion of student government funds to the food truck project. The bill, which passed unanimously in Student Senate, will dedicate $14,500 of student government funds to preparing a spot for the food trucks.
Gentzel said he hopes student government’s contributions will help Student Activities to settle on a budget and a location for the food trucks by the end of this semester.
“On our end, we’re going to try to get all of this running by the end of May,” Gentzel said.
Gentzel expects the food trucks will widen the range of dining options for Baylor students.
“I think it would definitely contribute to overall food diversity on campus,” Gentzel said. “While the dining halls cycle out their options, it’s just dependent on the day. This would give students more options.”
