Red tape strong enough to keep meals on wheels at bay

By: Michael Burnham

Over the past six years, a trend in the restaurant business has been rolling across the United States: food trucks.

All over the country, particularly in cities like Los Angeles and Portland, food trucks are being established as competitive outlets for customers who are looking for quality food at bargain prices.

Though that desire has also reached Logan and Utah State University, it has been stopped in its progress because food trucks are not allowed on campus.

Tony Valdez, a senior majoring in accounting, marketing and business administration, said he wants to have food trucks on campus.

“I would like to see that,” Valdez said. “But you’d definitely need to come up with a strong proposal.”

Valdez said there are many obstacles to getting food trucks on campus.

“I’ve tried to sell tacos on campus before and you can’t do it unless you’re affiliated with some kind of organization and you’re doing it just for the purpose of supplying your organization with money,” Valdez said. “You can’t do it for profit because you have to go through the dining services.”

Earlier this year, Mitch Henline, a former Aggie, partnered up with some friends and competed in the Entrepreneurship Club’s student startup competition. Henline and his partners won the competition with their Granny’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese food truck. But they were only allowed to sell their product on campus three times.

Granny’s tailgated a football game, sold at Day on the Quad and was present at the movie night before Day on the Quad, where it had its most successful sale to date.

“We broke records for our sales the night before day on the quad,” Henline said.

Henline said he thinks these are perfect indicators that food trucks would do well on campus.

“I think they would thrive on campus,” he said. “We were so impressed by how we did, we started asking fraternities if we could sell near campus.”

Valdez and other members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity sold tacos earlier this year from a small cart on their front lawn on Lars Hansen drive. He said they didn’t attempt to sell on campus.

“We knew we wouldn’t be allowed on campus,” Valdez said. He also said USU Dining Services is the main roadblock for the food trucks.

“They kind of monopolize all food vending on campus,” Valdez said.

Alan Andersen, the executive director of USU Dining Services, said many of the restrictions on campus dining options are out of his control.

“That’s not my decision,” Andersen said. “A lot of people are under the impression that I control that, but I don’t. Policies on campus are not made by us.”

Andersen said there are other common misconceptions about dining services as well.

“One of the things that a lot of people don’t understand about dining services on campus is that we are a business,” he said. “Even though we work for USU, we have to behave like a business.”

Andersen said not only does dining services not receive special reimbursement, but it has to pay for its spot on campus.

“I pay a lot of money to be in business up here,” Andersen said. “We pay over half a million dollars back to the university to be a part of it.”

Andersen said in the past, a Wendy’s franchise made a bid for a spot in The Hub. But Wendy’s backed out when they discovered the pay they would have to give to the university and the low dining revenue during dinner hours.

Though Andersen agreed that food trucks would thrive during breakfast and lunch hours on campus, he said he still doesn’t want them here.

“It’s a real challenge when we’re up here and trying to contribute back, and we get stabbed in the back by someone wanting to bring a food truck up here,” he said. “To me it’s like a food truck wanting to go into the parking lot at Sizzler and wanting to sell their food.”

Andersen said there are no policies that specifically restrict food trucks on campus, but there are two university policies that make it difficult. The first is a no solicitation policy, which restricts general solicitation and vending on campus without permission. The second is policy 536, which prohibits campus-affiliated businesses from advertising for their services off-campus.

“I can’t go down and advertise in the paper,” Andersen said. “I can’t intentionally compete with the private sector. My job is to provide to the campus community.”

Andersen said his and the university’s protectiveness over what happens on campus is a direct result of policy 536.

“Because we’re not allowed to do that, the university is a little protective over what goes on up here,” he said.

Andersen said he would love to have the policy 536 lifted to give him more freedom.

USUSA president Trevor Sean Olsen also said he would like to see the policy lifted to allow dining services to expand its services.

“I think that’d be a great option,” Olsen said.

Olsen said two of the school’s senators, Ben Vera and Sam Meredith, are currently working on a proposal to get food trucks some more freedom on campus. The proposal would possibly securing temporary approvals for food trucks, not permanent residence, in order to avoid competition with dining services.

— mikeburnham3@gmail.com
@mikeburnham31