DUSDAC plans for food truck rodeo

The Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee is gearing up for its annual food truck rodeo. 

The event features two to four food trucks that come to campus for a single afternoon. The food trucks that come for the event are likely to be food trucks that are already partners with Duke or those that seek a partnership.

Currently, there is a rotation of six food trucks that serve food in the evening—most often from around 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., although some trucks stay a bit later—on Swift Avenue. 

Food trucks also previously parked in the lot next to the Wellness Center. DUSDAC Co-Chair Ethan Kwok, a senior, said that this parking lot by the Wellness Center is likely to be the venue for the afternoon food truck festival. The festival will take place sometime in April.

Students will be given ten dollars’ worth of “tickets” to spend on food at the food trucks, which will buy the students any three items from the food trucks. DUSDAC members then plan to have a survey asking which food truck the students would most want to see on campus.

Kwok proposed the idea of giving out three more dollars’ worth of tickets to students who complete the survey after they demonstrate that they have tried a product from each of the participating food trucks.

Currently, the food trucks headlining the festival are Soomsoom Pita Pockets and The Bamboo Cookhouse. Soomsoom is a mediterranean-style food truck that currently works with Duke Dining and appears on Swift Avenue on alternating Mondays at 5 p.m. The Bamboo Cookhouse is a Filipino food truck that is not currently in the rotation.

DUSDAC members said that these food trucks for the festival are subject to change. They spent much of their meeting looking for other food truck options, discussing possibilities of including a Deli-style food truck or a truck that serves acai bowls.