Pretzels and hotdogs and curry, oh my!
You’ve seen them; the food carts that started popping up on campus between the Student Experience Center and the Memorial Union.
Where did they come from? Why are they here?
These trucks are a part of Truckin’ Tuesday, an ongoing event in order to bring students a greater variety of food choices, with more options set to join soon.
While MU Activities Team Event Planner Izzy Fashing claimed Event Coordinator and Special Projects Manager Mike Mathews came up with the idea, Mathews asserted that it was a team idea.
“(The MU Activities Team) was reestablished this year after a hiatus from COVID-19,” Mathews said. “We brainstormed some areas that we can help improve the student experience here at (Oregon State University). We hear a lot of comments about food options and the variety of food on campus.”
Mathews lauded his team for being able to put the event in place for this year’s winter term, making spring the second full term of Truckin’ Tuesday.
“We don’t plan on hosting (Truckin’ Tuesday) over the summer,” Mathews said. “But we do plan on starting next fall and continuing every Tuesday of the academic year.”
According to Mathews, the process of finding food trucks to come to campus is rather simple.
“We started by reaching out to local food trucks,” Mathews said. “So ones that are in the Corvallis, Albany, Eugene area and we just saw who would like to come to the campus and like to be part of the student experience.”
Eugene-based food cart Sling-in Wiener, which normally sets up shop at the University of Oregon, first came to Truckin’ Tuesday on Feb. 20 and, according to co-owner Misti Hagan, they haven’t missed a Tuesday since.
“We got a message from OSU,” Sling-in Wiener co-owner Rev Hagan said, “Asking if we wanted to come up here on a Tuesday. We decided to give it a try.”
The Hagans said that business at OSU is very comparable to the business they get at UO and that the feedback from students and faculty has been overall positive.
“In fact, the response has been so enthusiastic that we will be coming to Monroe Street Salon as a late night food option on Fridays and Saturdays in the month of May,” the Hagans said in an email.
The Hagans said they would be happy to continue coming to OSU in the future.
While the MU Activities Team tries to keep ties with the Corvallis community, Mathews said that the event has grown so much, finding food trucks is no longer an issue.
“We’ve sort of flipped the script there,” Mathews said. “Food trucks are now reaching out to us. So at this point, we’re not selecting them. It’s just a matter of if they fit our criteria and the university’s criteria for doing service on campus. When they do that process, we’ll take them at that point.”
According to an email with Mathews, two trucks have reached out to the MU Activities Team. The first, Fritters, is due to attend Truckin’ Tuesday on Tuesday while the other, La China, is still working on getting the proper paperwork.
“The food trucks at Truckin’ Tuesday must adhere to all of the applicable state and county laws and regulations as they pertain to mobile restaurants,” Mathews said in the same email. “We ensure that they have a mobile restaurant license and/or a temporary restaurant license (with Benton County) and that they maintain a level of insurance coverage that meets the university’s requirement.”
Mathews said that figuring out which food trucks are featured each week is a rather laissez faire affair.
“It’s a matter of calling them up and saying, ‘Hey, can you be there? We would love to have you.’ So the three or four trucks that have been out there the most have committed and just been here every week. They just love interacting with the students and they love the business,” Mathews said.
Albany food truck 3 Potato More co-owner Bill Pollnow said that business is good here at OSU and he looks forward to Tuesday every week.
“The students are always smiling and happy to see us,” Pollnow said. “Especially on days like today when we give out a free cookie with every food purchase. We do this once every month. We like to give back.”
Student and Beavers Digest contributor Sarah Murphy, who first visited the food trucks on April 23, thought that it’s great they’re here.
“This is my first time at the carts,” Murphy said. “I have seen them around and I’ve wanted to try them for a while. I’m glad I did.”
Murphy said that she will continue going to the food trucks in the future.
Looking forward, Mathews sees big things for Truckin’ Tuesdays.
“Our goal is, we would really like to turn it into like a food cart pod, but on Tuesdays, where you could come and there’ll be a wider selection of food,” Mathews said. “Hopefully some more culturally relevant options for international students and things like that, to give them a little taste of home while they’re studying abroad.”
