Food Truck Thursdays are a huge hit on Cabrini’s campus. The Student Engagement and Leadership office has been trying to engage students on campus during the pandemic while practicing social distancing.
“Food Trucks have been a big way to engage students on smaller campuses socially during COVID,” Andrees Rivers, Assistant Director of programming at SEaL, said. “As a result, our office was in support of hosting outdoor events with food trucks, music and prizes in order to offer additional programming options for students each week during this tough semester!”
Rivers has researched and looked into many ways on how to create higher student engagement on campus. Several other schools in the area like Neumann and Villanova University are participating in the same activities and events that are known to create student engagement on campus.
So far the SEaL office has hosted multiple food trucks such as Chickie’s and Pete’s, Steve’s Prince of Steaks, DonutNV and Pitruco pizza truck.
The SEaL office is hoping to continue Food Truck Thursdays in the future. “Based on the popularity of these events and the feedback that I have received, I think it would be a great idea to continue Food Trucks on campus,” Rivers said.
Lots of students have been enjoying this new feature on campus and are lining up to get a chance to have some free food. SEaL and the food trucks offer free food to every certain amount of students.
“It definitely motivated me, because I didn’t have to pay for my food, and good food at that.” Patrick Healy, a secondary education and history major, said.
“Although there are people who end up being the 101st person in line, people still end up waiting in line and paying for it because they still want it.”
“Chickie and Pete’s Crab Fries” by slgckgc is licensed under CC BY 2.0
So far with the few food trucks the SEaL office has had on campus they plan on varying the times so that all students with different schedules can get a chance to participate.
“It has been a challenge to find a perfect time fit for all students, but this is why we held some trucks at 6:30pm and others at 12pm. The variety in time has allowed us to reach different students,” Rivers said.
There is some hesitation from students with COVID-19 still being an issue. People who have attended the food trucks have seen that the lines are not socially distant at all.
“Even though the lines are not being socially distant when they should be, I do think this [food trucks] is a clever way to get students involved, even with COVID-19,” Healy said.
Since these food trucks have been such a hit and hitting capacity in 30 minutes of the event starting, the SEaL office and students hope that these events will continue in the future.
“I do want to see this even continuing through the rest of the spring semester and again in the next school year starting during the Fall 2021 semester,” Healy said. He believes the food truck Thursdays are creating more opportunities for students to interact with others safely during the pandemic.
As for upcoming food trucks the SEaL office is hoping to get your input.
“At the end of the semester, students will receive a survey via email to offer written feedback about the Food Truck Thursday programming series,” Rivers said.
From this survey they will get an idea of what the students here at Cabrini want to see and eat more of in the future.
