In 2007, NC State University Dining partnered with Raleigh-area food truck vendors to bring new flavors and an alternative dining option to an underserved part of campus. Since then, the food trucks have had a regular weekday lunch schedule, showing up between Venture II-A and II-B on Centennial Campus.
Randy Lait, director of University Dining, said that the food trucks were brought to Centennial Campus in part as a result of difficulties with arranging availability of other food options.
“It was probably 10 years [ago], now,” Lait said. “There wasn’t any food at all really on Centennial Campus. We were in the process of building everything, and we couldn’t get together a cohesive plan for getting food.”
According to some customers of the food trucks, many who show up to get lunch from the food trucks are employees working in the nearby Venture buildings, along with some students of the SKEMA Business School, which is located nearby on Centennial Campus.
Before On the Oval, a food court located near Wolf Ridge, was built, the lack of food service on Centennial Campus was addressed in a different, but insufficient manner.
“The Oval’s been open for about three years,” Lait said. “Before, people had to leave Centennial Campus to get food. We put two small Port City Java units out there years before because they were smaller, and we could squeeze them into underserved parts of campus. That’s all that we had there for a while.”
Since their implementation, Centennial Campus food trucks have maintained a consistent consumer base, with some trucks moving in and out over time, according to Lait.
“They’ve done OK,” Lait said. “There is some change from year to year. We’ll probably get 10 requests per year from new food truck operators who want to join the program.”
Lait said that the food trucks fill a niche by “providing variety” in terms of food options on Centennial Campus. Instead of asking for a percentage of the food trucks’ sales, University Dining charges the food trucks a flat daily rate.
“They give us their valid, Wake County permits to operate, we sell them a vending license and we only ask them for $50 for every day that they are on campus,” Lait said. “So, we don’t have them report their sales. It’s just something to say that they do give back to NC State.”
Woodrow Barlow works in Venture III and is among the many Centennial Campus employees who eats regularly at the food trucks, saying that they are better options than the Oval because of the greater variety and tastier food.
“I don’t like to take a long lunch because I like to leave [work] a little early, so it’s really convenient to be able to just pop out here and get some sun and some food and have a walk,” Barlow said.
Donna Pope, an ABB employee, also eats at the food trucks and said that her favorite is Baguettaboutit, which serves locally made sausage in freshly baked baguettes. However, she said she misses the Chick-Fil-A food truck and wishes it would return.
Food truck customers, including Pope and Kelsey Reagan, another Centennial Campus employee, said they prefer eating at the food trucks to driving elsewhere for lunch.
According to Lait, the food trucks are not going away any time soon because of their popularity in recent years. For students and University Dining alike, the food trucks on Centennial Campus have cemented themselves as an original and accessible dining option.
“I thought for a while that food trucks were a fad and that they wouldn’t last very long,” Lait said. “We looked at operating a couple of food trucks ourselves, but I just felt that we wouldn’t be able to provide the variety and that we should instead partner with outside food trucks. We really appreciate our partnership.”
The food truck, Hibachi Xpress, serves people on Centennial Campus as an alternative food source. Food trucks are parked on Centennial Campus Monday–Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Each day there are different food trucks such as Hibachi Xpress, Only Burger, Chick-N-Que and many more.
