Food Trucks on the BU Campus
As a new semester begins, BU Today is revisiting favorite features from recent months. In this feature, Comm Ave pedestrians answer the question “What do you like about the new food trucks?”
| FROM BU TODAY | BY AMY LASKOWSKI | VIDEO BY ROBIN BERGHAUS
It’s impossible to walk by the colorful food trucks dotting Comm Ave without noticing the long lines and fragrant aromas. Sandwiches, cupcakes, and steaming lattes are just a smattering of what the food trucks that arrive on campus every day offer. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner, each has nutritious food at affordable prices.
Boston was slow to embrace the national food truck trend. In 2010, Mayor Thomas Menino (Hon.’01) launched a Healthy Food Initiative designed to give residents better access to healthy food and issued a Food Truck Challenge, asking local vendors to come up with meals using fresh, local ingredients. Last fall, seven judges, among them some of the city’s most prominent chefs, and the public voted three food trucks contest winners.
Bon Me, co-owned by Alison Fong (CAS’01), with its healthy, Vietnamese-inspired food, was crowned one of the winners, along with Momogoose and Clover. Each was awarded technical assistance, permits, and low-interest loans to help their businesses grow.
Now 15 food truck vendors are part of the initiative, each bringing, in Menino’s words, “wicked good food” to different parts of the city. To participate, each must offer at least one healthy menu option and be committed to environmental sustainability. The trucks serve people craving dining options in places where there isn’t space for a new restaurant, says Fong. “When people buy their lunch from a truck, it brings them out to enjoy the city’s parks and green space,” she says. “And many food trucks pride themselves on serving food that is healthy.”
Many of the food trucks participating in the Boston program, as well as some additions, arrive each day on Commonwealth Ave., and BU Today has compiled a list. Follow the trucks on Twitter, as many of them post updates about hours and menus.
To read more from BU Today and for a full list of campus food trucks, including locations and menus, click here!
