Temporary food trucks should be permanent to keep students’ options open

For me, it feels a little unnatural to trust food coming out of a truck, but Angelenos quickly embraced the idea with open mouths, making Los Angeles the birthplace and capital of food truck culture.

Earlier this year when the Bombshelter first closed, Associated Students UCLA introduced our campus to the food truck fad as a way to provide dining options during the construction of the Court of Sciences Student Center.

Despite their popularity, the food trucks are not being considered as a long-term food option once the construction in South Campus is completed. ASUCLA should, however, allow the food trucks to keep serving the campus because they allow us to celebrate something now distinctly a part of L.A. culture.

There are currently 31 trucks rotating on a schedule, providing customers with options like gyros, kimchi quesadillas or dosas, thereby widening the number of food options available to students.

There are a few places the trucks could go to in central campus where there are no eateries immediately around to compete with, but a central location would benefit both sides of campus.

While two food trucks visit our campus daily right now, it would be worth it to keep at least one food truck visiting campus daily after construction is completed, specifically in central campus.

Food trucks are here in the first place because when ASUCLA realized that the Court of Sciences Student Center was going to be a multiyear construction project, it looked into getting a temporary facility to serve students in the area.

It soon recognized that in order to comply with fire and health codes, it would have to spend a lot of money on this facility, and that would not be worth it.

So ASUCLA decided to call in the newly trendy food trucks that had been roaming Los Angeles to campus. The trucks on campus have been wildly popular, receiving media coverage from various publications and even getting a shout-out on the UCLA Admissions’ blog.

But compared to the Bombshelter, the 400 to 600 customers who visit the food trucks each day is significantly less, according to Cindy Bolton, ASUCLA food services director.

Even still, this is a fair number of customers, and demand may be higher if the trucks were in the middle of campus where both art and chemistry students could access this rotating menu.

Food trucks will always compete with ASUCLA restaurants and private vendors like Rubio’s, but placing them geographically farther from these food options would be better for both.

ASUCLA charges these trucks a percentage of their sales for allowing them to use the campus, which works out to be between $6,000 and $7,000 of revenue each month. This should make up at least part of the lost revenue ASUCLA may experience.

One place the truck could park next to is the Club Sports field, facing Wilson Plaza. There’s plenty of space there for a truck without blocking walking or fire truck access.

A second place the truck could be allowed is on the street between the Schoenberg and Humanities buildings. There are already parking spots designated in that area, and all ASUCLA would have to do is work with Parking to block those spots off.

A third location is between the two Sunken Gardens (Dickson Court). Again, there are already parking spots that can be blocked off for the truck here.

After the Court of Sciences Student Center is complete, South Campus will have ample food options, keeping it on par with North Campus ,which has Lu Valle Commons and the North Campus Student Center.

But the area between Kaufman Hall, the Student Activities Center, Murphy Hall and Dodd Hall has surprisingly no restaurants.

Placing food trucks in this location would not directly compete with an already established ASUCLA eatery and would provide students with some popular food options in central campus.

All practicality aside, as the UC campus in Los Angeles, we should embrace and celebrate the L.A. culture of food trucks for the long run or they will be sorely missed.

If you’re eating at Slice Truck or Phamish today, e-mail Ramzanali at [email protected]. Send general comments to
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