Truckfest to feature 15 food trucks

The third annual TruckFest, hosted by the Community Service Inter-Club Council, in conjunction with the Pace Council for Civic Values, will host 15 food trucks and will donate a majority of its proceeds to two local charities, Meals on Wheels and Send Hunger Packing, according to CS-ICC press chairJennifer Peng '17.

TruckFest will take place on Prospect Street from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Apr. 16.

TheCS-ICCconsists of all of the community service representatives from each of the eleven eating clubs, according to Cason Crane '17, a co-chair of the CS-ICC.The committee was created last year to specifically coordinate and execute community service initiatives, such as TruckFest and Trick or Feet 5k/10k Run, Crane added.

The three co-chairs, Crane, Jennifer Liu '16 and Rachel Margulies '16, have split the responsibilities of organizing TruckFest, which is the largest event of the year for the CS-ICC, according to Crane. Planning for TruckFest started in October, with Crane in charge of sponsorship, Liu in charge of communications and publicity and Margulies in charge of the food trucks.

Margulies said she and six other members of the truck food committee have emailed over 150 trucks since October, including ones as far away as Washington D.C.

Margulies noted that during the selection process for trucks, the committee gives preference to those located closer to Princeton.

"We try and start our search from Princeton outwards, so if we know that one is based in Princeton or is opening a store in Princeton in the near future, we prefer them over another one, because those trucks are more inclined to support the area," she said.

Margulies said that the committee had fifteen trucks by last Friday that agreed to participate.

Barring any potential last-minute changes, Margulies says there should be four or five dessert trucks and ten or eleven savory trucks. A large variety of food will be available for tasting, including Korean fusion, tacos, scrambled eggs sandwiches, Italian ice, burger sliders, waffles and ice cream, crepes, New Orleans food and barbecue.

Students can buy food at TruckFest by purchasing tickets as they enter, according to Margulies. One ticket is two dollars, and like a fair, each item of the food truck menus will cost a certain number of tickets, she added. Prices are determined individually by truck vendors.

The event is one of the largest to take place on the University’s campus, Crane noted. According to him, TruckFest has had between four and five thousand attendees for each of the past two years, whereas Lawnparties typically has three thousand attendees.

One of the major initiatives this year is to make it very clear to all participants that the event is a fundraiser for charity. To emphasize this, the CS-ICC changed the slogan to “good food, good cause,” according to Margulies.

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“We’ve raised a total of $40,000 in the first year and $45,000 last year. $20,000 and $25,000, respectively, have gone to charity. This year, we’re hoping to raise $50,000 and send $30,000 to charity,” said Crane.

Although food trucks participating in TruckFest will be paid, this event is still a fundraiser for charity, according to Margulies.

“The trucks are actually doing this event at a loss; they will lose money by coming to this event, which means they really care about this cause. For them to come to an event like this, they would otherwise earn two or three thousand dollars, and we’re only paying them $750,” said Margulies.

As a result, the CS-ICC is working to make this event valuable to the food trucks in other ways, she added. The Council has really pushed the event on social media, featuring participating food trucks daily on the official Facebook page. University's chapter of Spoon University, an online food magazine for college students,has even volunteered to give each truck a focus article, according to Margulies.

Marguliesalso explained that there's a possibility for a future partnership between residential college dining halls and the top three most popular trucks. If a contract is realized, the dining halls will import food items from the truck vendors periodically.

If residential colleges do form a contract, then the event would be even more profitable for the participating food trucks, Margulies added.

“That means that they will host the food truck at a study break for their students, so we’re really grateful that the resident colleges are supporting the event so much,” Liu said.

TruckFest is sponsored by the Princeton Prospect Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that works with the eating clubs, the University, and others.