The food truck festival, which typically brings more than a dozen local vendors to campus, took on a new form this semester to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for the entire Elon community.
In a semester where things aren’t quite the same as usual, the campus was still able to take part in a special tradition on Wednesday.
Students, faculty and staff gathered on a beautiful October afternoon to enjoy delicious local food at the Fall 2020 Food Truck Frenzy. The event, hosted by Elon Dining and the Elon Student Union Board, typically invites more than a dozen food trucks to campus once each semester for a festival filled with food, friends and fun. However, the event was reimagined this semester to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for the entire community.
“I love seeing the joy people get when they have food, so being able to figure out a way to make this possible has been awesome for us,” said Emily Sanderson ’22, director of special events for SUB.
Instead of a dozen trucks, organizers invited four vendors to campus: Chirba Chirba Dumpling, Dusty Donuts, Morfa Empanadas and Bulkogi Korean BBQ. The vendors spread their trucks across the Koury Lot and outside Global Neighborhood to provide plenty of room for people to wait in socially distanced lines. Attendees wore masks throughout the event to allow everyone to safely order food, and each vendor went through the same check-ins and followed the same safety protocols as Elon Dining staff.
Although the Food Truck Frenzy took on a different form this year, it offered the Elon community the same opportunity to come together over a love of food.
“I feel like it still has the same kind of energy,” said Casey Claflin, guest experiences manager for Elon Dining and campus dining provider Harvest Table Culinary Group. “Especially right now, it’s great to have something else to do – some semblance of normalcy. I think it’s super important to keep doing things like this.”
In a year full of uncertainty, Sanderson says it was important to her to continue the Food Truck Frenzy tradition at Elon. This year’s festival marked her fourth time taking part in the event, and while this semester’s Frenzy came with some modifications, Sanderson says it’s still her favorite event at Elon.
“I feel like Food Truck Frenzy just gives us the biggest sense of community,” she said. “You see people walking from class to class, and they stop with their friends to get food and just spend time outside. So I think this just reminds Elon that we still have this sense of community right now.”
Following the Food Truck Frenzy, Elon Dining will continue to invite one local food truck to campus for students, faculty and staff to enjoy each week. Find the full Fall 2020 Food Truck Schedule here.