TruckFest raises estimated $28,000 for Send Hunger Packing, Meals on Wheels

On Saturday, April 29, eating clubs hosted the fourth annual TruckFest food truck festival on Prospect Avenue. For the past three years, community service chairs of the 11 eating clubs have collaborated to put on the festival, which raises money for local charity organizations.

This year, TruckFest included 16 different food trucks, a greater number than in previous years. Food options included past favorites such as the Feed Truck, Fork in the Road, and Maddalena’s Cheesecake. Most food and drink options cost visitors either two or three tickets, with tickets costing $2 each.

All proceeds of the event went to the Send Hunger Packing Initiative and to Meals on Wheels of Mercer County, the same organizations that received the proceeds in past years.

Alex Hanley ’18, one of two co-directors of TruckFest, said on Sunday night that she and the other co-director, Sabrina Fried ’18, are estimating that the event raised over $28,000 from tickets sales and other donations.

“We wanted to pick charities that had a local focus and combatted the issue of food insecurity," Hanley said, explaining the decision to donate to Send Hunger Packing and Meals on Wheels.

Many University students also volunteered at TruckFest. The community service chairs of the 11 different eating clubs divided into teams that were respectively responsible for beverages, the silent auction, getting supplies from building services, securing performances from campus performing arts groups, advertising on social media, and recruiting volunteers.

Morayo Odujinrin ’18, the community service chair of Terrace Club, was in charge of the beverage team.

“Everybody worked incredibly hard all semester to make this happen, but worked especially hard on the day of,” said Odujinrin. “Some people got there at 8 a.m. and didn’t leave until after 7 p.m.”

Jennifer Peng ’17, the former community service chair of Colonial Club, worked as the head of the communications team. She was in charge of designing the logo for the event, sending out email blasts, putting up posters, and posting on social media. Publicity efforts reached out to other nearby campuses, with many students from Rutgers and The College of New Jersey coming to the University for the event.

In the past, Peng has worked on the Inter-Club Council’s other main community service initiative, Trick-or-Feed, an effort to pair an October social event at the eating clubs with donations of food and essentials items.

“The eating clubs came together in the name of service; that’s the best part of TruckFest,” Peng said.

“I got to work with some great people in other clubs, whom I might not have met outside of the [Community Service Inter-Club Council],” Odujinrin said.

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Many other students contributed to the event through student group performances. Performers at the event included the Nassoons, the Footnotes, the Tigressions, the Wildcats, the Tiger Tones, Shere Khan, Sensemaya, DJ Elias, Mas Flow, Raqs Odalisque, and Sympoh.

Amy Hudson ’19 performed with her a capella group, the Tigerlillies, as part of TruckFest.

“They actually gave us some free tickets for performing, so we got to enjoy some of the food in addition to singing,” said Hudson. “I enjoyed that it wasn’t just Princeton students there. It was really nice to see all the families; everyone was having a good time.”

The TruckFest food truck festival took place along Prospect Avenue on Saturday, April 29 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.