Food trucks had a slow first week as a lunch option.
In response to decreased dining options, the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee, Duke Student Government and Duke Dining worked together to bring food trucks to campus as a lunch option. The trucks are located behind Perkins and Bostock libraries where, as of yet, many students are unaware of their existence, explained senior Chris Taylor, co-chair of DUSDAC.
“We found that this location is not very visible,” said Jody Argote, the owner of the Parlez-Vous Crepe food truck. “On Tuesday, the first hour didn’t go well but then I put up signs by the stairs that students walk by and that seemed to help.”
Argote said that advertisement is particularly important since students will not see the trucks on their way to class. She plans on using Duke Dining’s promotional campaign as well as her own social media—specifically Twitter and Facebook—to publicize the location of her truck at lunchtime.
Carolina Escobar, founder of Captain Ponchos, noted that her truck had 15 customers during Monday’s lunch hours—fewer than she had expected, given the popularity of the truck during dinner hours.
“The location isn’t ideal. In a perfect world, the trucks would be in front of the Chapel or on the lawn,” Taylor said. “Duke doesn’t want anything in either of those places before 5 o’clock”
Robert Coffey, director of dining services, noted that Duke Dining worked with student requests and different offices on campus to determine the location of the lunchtime food trucks.
Coffey explained that busy traffic patterns during the day around campus limit location options for the trucks. He added that it is too early in the process to make long-term predictions about the program’s success.
“As always, we want to offer a tremendous amount of variety to the dining program while not over-saturating or cannibalizing any segment of the program for any of our vendors,” Coffey said.
Taylor noted that DUSDAC is doing its best to publicize the lunch food trucks.
“We want to make sure people go, or else it threatens the whole thing,” Taylor said.
Taylor said that he is hopeful that DUSDAC can change people’s daily routine, noting that the location is not as inconvenient as some might think.
“It’s the best, most immediate solution to this problem,” Taylor said. “We can’t build a Chick-fil-A in a month.”
As for vendors, Argote said that she remains positive and realizes that this is a new location and a new program.
“I’m not discouraged, because I honestly decided not to have high expectations,” she said.
Argote noted that she thinks the amount of customers will grow each week. If her customer base for lunch doesn’t grow, she said she will be disappointed.
“Hopefully the colder weather won’t affect business,” she said. “Students still have to go to class.”
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