Tom Bauer, senior manager of Eastway, sits outside of Eastway in the brand new dining services food truck that will drive around campus to reach students and faculty when they can’t access a dining hall.

Credit: Jason Hall

Hungry?

Why wait?

For students, staff and faculty looking for a quick way to eat between classes, Dining Services has the answer.

A new food truck, offering cold sandwiches, salads and snacks, and accepting cash only will make rounds as early as next week.

“It’s very grab-and-go,” said Eugene Walters, marketing manager of Dining Services. “It’s not going to have hot items except for coffee.”

The truck will offer specific sandwiches and snacks from a variety of on-campus diners, Walters said. For people not familiar with on-campus food, all sandwiches and snacks will be marked as to which diner they are from. Menus from on-campus diners will be available, too.

Walters said he hopes the truck will answer the concerns of students who want food closer to class buildings.

“We get requests for food services in buildings that don’t have any (diners),” Walters said. “Some of these buildings don’t have the real estate to have a dining location nor do they have the traffic to support it.”

Reaching out to commuter students and introducing them to food available on campus is one goal Dining Services hopes to achieve with the food truck.

“A commuter student may not go to Eastway or the Student Center (for food),” Walters said. “We’re going to make that available for them.”

He said he hopes the truck will also be convenient for staff and faculty, explaining that professors may purchase food to refrigerate until lunch.

Dining Services is still finalizing the menu and the route the truck will take. It is also still deciding on the truck’s name. Walters said there have been hundreds of suggestions, including “Food in a Flash” and “The Cart Wright.”

No matter what the name, Walters said he hopes the truck will be successful in pleasing customers.

“(We’re) just trying to reach more people, something Dining Services tries to always do,” he said. “We’re trying to listen to our customers. This is our way of doing it.”

Contact room and board reporter Stephanie Park at [email protected].