Blue Crew hosts food truck fair on the quad

Utah State University’s Blue Crew managed to pull off a Food Truck Fair despite COVID-19 forcing students online. 

The event was held on the quad instead of the usual Weeks of Welcome events like the Big Agg Show.

Hannah Seegmiller, the Blue Crew president, was excited to have so many students socially distanced and wearing masks on the quad for the food trucks. 

“We really wanted to do something that was safe for the students and still do … an event on the quad similar to the Aggie Festival that we’ve done in the past,” Seegmiller said. 

Blue Crew enforced social distancing and all students were required to wear masks.

Seegmiller worked with Porter Casdorph to get seven food trucks on the quad on Monday, serving everything from fried Navajo tacos (originally called fry bread) to ice cream. Blue Crew and other student event teams on campus have also worked to make events like High Stakes Bingo and Pobev (an event featuring poetry readings and music performed by students) still available during the outbreak of COVID-19.

Blue Crews work hasn’t gone unnoticed. 

“I really like that they’re still trying to do stuff,” freshman Erika Blaser said. “This is really the only socializing you get with COVID.” 

Clearly, Utah State’s event staff understands this need for student involvement on campus. Various sorority houses had tables set up by the lines for food trucks, making it easy for students to get involved during rush week.

“Oh my gosh. They’ve done a wonderful job” Erik Fogth said with a smile. “They’ve incentivized people to come by giving these vouchers. Some people came early.”

Which made room for social distancing, Fogth explained.

Still, enforcing social distancing is fairly difficult, especially with such a large student body. But Blue Crew managed to communicate to students while they were on the quad with a speaker and a microphone. Casdorph occasionally asked students to take two or three steps back to maintain social distancing. Unfortunately, students weren’t always maintaining social distancing, especially towards the end of the line. Still, Blue Crew did a lot to encourage students to be safe.

“They’ve sectioned off places people can eat after,” she said. “We’re definitely socially distanced.” 

Of course, the university is constantly taking extra precautions for the students’ safety. 

“We swipe every student’s card that is coming so we have access to their A-number,” Seegmiller said. “So, if there is a person who is registered in the school as testing positive for COVID, then we can see if they came to our event and then we can notify the people that are here that there was a positive case.” Card tracing is used for all student events, at the Aggie Recreation Center and labs on campus. With precautions like these, students at USU will continue to have fun, socially distanced events available throughout the semester. 

For more details on student events, visit @ususaevents on Instagram.

*This article was updated on September 23 to address concerns.

Emily White is a junior studying English and broadcast journalism. She is currently serving as the senior writer for the Lifestyles section of the Statesman.

—emily.white@usu.edu