MIDORI DAVIS | Editor-in-Chief
Lunch at WSU Vancouver just got better – way better. After a struggle to find better on-campus food choices than the prepackaged options at the Café, the university is bringing a fresh taco food truck to campus up to two days a week.
It’s a welcome action that follows at least two years of public dissatisfaction by WSU Vancouver students and comprehensive coverage in The VanCougar newsmagazine. The action also comes as a surprise, upending the long-held argument that regular food cart visits were impossible due to campus infrastructure limits. Finding self-sustaining food trucks licensed to operate in Washington and willing to travel to WSU Vancouver regularly was a tall order for the university.
Until now.
Bribe My Belly, a food truck owned by Kimberly Myers, a graduate of the McClaskey Culinary Institute of Clark College, will be open up to two days a week from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Mt. St. Helens corridor near the new Life Sciences Building
Myers had done a test run on May 28 and 29 from 11 p.m. to 2 p.m. to see how her food fared with summer students on campus. Both days sold out entirely, signaling to Vice President of Finance and Operations Jennifer Chambers-Taube the green light for a long-term contract.
“She definitely got excited about coming more often,” said Chambers-Taube. “So I actually entered into a year-long agreement with her so that she can come two to three days a week for those hours.
This is the first longterm contract WSU Vancouver has established with a food truck, while its contract with Canteen Vending Services to run the Cafe has been renewed again this past July with no substantive changes to its terms of service to students – such as affixing legible prices to an inventory now showing no prices. Prices, often a surprise to students, are made clear only at pay stations upon scanning an item’s barcode. The return of items to shelves is not uncommon. This won’t change, said Chambers-Taube
It is hoped the food cart will, in expanding lunchtime options, offset dissatisfactions with the Café while making the case for further food cart experimentation.
“My hope is after a couple of months of this and it being successful, I can use that to perhaps entice other food trucks to come,” said Chambers-Taube. “Myself and the administration, we are continuing to do and explore everything that we can.”