Popular food trucks Net Appetit and Mia’s Catering were forced to leave campus due to University policy. (SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)

Mia’s Catering, a Mexican food truck, will no longer serve food on the Stanford campus as per the University’s new mobile food vendor policy. In response, community members have circulated a petition calling for the University to relax their food truck policy, which has already driven the popular food truck Net Appetit off campus.

On Monday, a Stanford sheriff asked Mia’s Catering owner Nimia Knuth to leave campus per the University’s new policy that all food trucks must operate under food truck management company Off the Grid.

Knuth had previously parked her food truck in front of Harold,next to Encina Hall, for about 15 minutes every afternoon, and she received a notice from the University before winter break informing her about how to contact Off the Grid to remain on campus. However, Off the Grid’s proposed schedule of 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. two days a week did not fit into Knuth’s scheduled route of construction sites on campus and other locations in Palo Alto.

Knuth only has about seven customers per shift at Harold, but she continued coming to serve a group of faithful customers, including students, staff and faculty. Graduate student Ariel Méndez was one of Knuth’s loyal customers.

“Her food was so good, and it was so affordable, that even on days when I thought I was having a really bad day, as long as I had some of her food for lunch, I felt like it wasn’t a total loss,” she said.

“I hate to leave them,” Knuth said. “It’s my business, but at the same time, I care about them too. Sometimes I’m very late to come over here because my construction holds me longer, and they’re here waiting for me.

“I love that, but at the same time, I don’t want to go against Stanford rules,” Knuth added.

Mia’s Catering has been on campus since the 1997-98 restoration of Encina Hall, serving construction sites at places from the Stanford Hospital to Bing Concert Hall. Many of Knuth’s customers expressed frustration that the mobile food vendor policy prevents Mia’s Catering from remaining on campus outside of construction sites.

“You’re losing a lot of variety and choices, both in terms of food availability, but then also in terms of geography,” said Lucas Puente, a political science graduate student.

In response to Knuth’s removal, Puente created a petition that aims to “end the University-sanctioned food truck oligopoly on Stanford’s campus.” A day after he posted the petition, it had over 120 signatures.

“[The goal of the petition is] just to gather as many names as possible and then show [Susan Weinstein], any decision-maker in that office or in the University more broadly that there are a lot of people who care about the availability of food trucks on campus and that they are not happy with the new status quo,” Puente said.

So far, Puente has tried to spread the word about the petition primarily through social media. He hopes to get at least 500 signatures before presenting it to Weinstein.

The petition addresses Puente’s concerns that the new mobile food vendor policy limits options for Stanford students.

“It’s a very simple microeconomic principle that limiting competition is going to hurt consumers,” Puente said.

Both Puente and Méndez emphasized that Knuth has a spotless health record and operates in line with the University’s standards.

“[Knuth is] a really wonderful, caring person,” Méndez said. “She’s not someone that I would single out as a problem for the things that the policy is supposed to eliminate.”

Puente expressed optimism about the possibility of policy revisions.

“I haven’t talked to anybody who’s strongly in favor of the new policy and wouldn’t advocate at least some changes to it,” Puente said. “I think people want to see the consumers’ interests put first and not the University’s bank account.”

http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/02/15/students-protest-food-truck-removal/

Courtesy of Philip Spiegel, Palo Alto Patch

Net Appetit, a popular food truck that has served Thai food on Santa Teresa Avenue for more than a decade, has been asked by the University to cease operations on campus as part of Stanford’s new mobile food vendor policy, which took effect on Jan. 7 of this year.

Chon Vo, founder and operator of Net Appetit, has operated the truck on the Stanford campus since 2001. All Vo’s profits go to Aid to Children Without Parents (ACWP), a nonprofit organization that provides two meals to children in Vietnam for every dollar donated by the truck.

Stanford’s new policy regarding food trucks mandates that trucks must register with Off The Grid, a food truck management company that has partnered with the University for the winter pilot program to bring food trucks to campus.

Assistant Vice President for Business Development Susan Weinstein ’72 MBA ’79 who helped draft the mobile food vendor policy, declined a request for interview but released a statement saying the notice about the food truck policy and its implementation was given to trucks operating on campus beginning last November.

“The notice informed the trucks that they would be required to have a permit from Off the Grid in order to continue [to] serve campus beginning on Jan. 7, and also contained information on how the food trucks could register with Off The Grid,” Weinstein wrote.

Vo was informed of the decision through an unsigned notice from the Stanford University Department of Public Safety on Dec. 7, one week before the University closed for winter break.

“On Dec. 7, the campus police dropped off the letter,” Vo said. “We only had one week to react, and the letter wasn’t signed, so we didn’t know how to get in touch.”

Since then, he has tried unsuccessfully to appeal to administrators, citing a spotless health record.

“That’s the thing that perplexed us the most,” Vo said. “If we violated stuff like the food safety, then of course we know why, but we have a good record of 11 years. Not a single violation– a spotless record.”

Students and other members of the Stanford community have sent Vo more than 200 emails expressing sadness over the absence of Net Appetit.

The mobile food vendor policy does not specifically state that food trucks must go through Off the Grid to be on campus, however the University defended their decision.

“Stanford has a long-standing policy contained in [Administrative] Guide 15.3, which requires permission from Stanford before any unrelated commercial enterprise may operate on campus,” Weinstein wrote. “Uninvited food trucks do not have such permission.”

“Other food trucks serving campus must demonstrate that they can operate in compliance with the [mobile food vendor] policy and be permitted to sell at a specific time and location,” according to the notice given to Vo. “Stanford has engaged Off the Grid to manage the process to obtain a permit.”

According to Vo, the process of registering with Off the Grid is not as easy as the notice makes it seem– when he applied, he received a rejection letter saying that all the available spaces on campus were taken.

Vo said that Net Appetit was not attempting to grow as a business or take business away from Tresidder eateries such as CoHo, so he capped the number of meals sold per day at 120.  The food truck was making just enough money to cover the cost of operations and give $200 a day to ACWP. Vo called the truck “a gift that kept on giving.”

However, because it is a nonprofit, Vo said Net Appetit doesn’t have the cash reserves of a typical business and wouldn’t be able to sustain itself without business from its on-campus spot.

“If Stanford doesn’t allow [us back] within three months [from December], we will run out of the cash reserve,” Vo said. “We have a month and a half left, and then we will never come back again.”

“The only thing we’re worried about now is that we don’t abandon the people who have been with us,” he added. “Some people have been eating [at Net Appetit] for ten years. It’s not because our food is better. Stanford has the best dining facilities– better than Yale, better than Harvard. I think it’s just there’s not enough ethnic cuisine here… so we concentrate on that, and we’ve been very successful.”

Stanford Law School teaching fellow Matt Lamkin, who used Net Appetit to cater Law School events, was enthusiastic about the truck’s service, low cost, food and mission.

“I sincerely hope that, one way or another, he’ll be able to operate the truck at Stanford, he said. “Selfishly because I love the food, but more importantly, because of the great work that it funds.”

The University will consider adding another truck to the lunchtime schedule, according to Weinstein, but it must meet a list of requirements including not blocking walkways or bike paths and not being too close to an existing campus café.

http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/01/30/new-mobile-food-vendor-policy-drives-net-appetit-off-campus/

Food truck on Santa Teresa Street

Food truck management company Off the Grid has partnered with Stanford under the University’s new mobile food vendor policy to provide late night and lunchtime food truck options. The first late-night food trucks appeared on campus on Jan. 11 and 12.

“There were existing policies already about how vendors and commercial businesses operate on campus, so this just extended them to food trucks, which are a unique business operation,” University Spokesperson Lisa Lapin said. “But the real impetus [for creating the policy] was the increasing popularity and variety of food trucks and the recognition that with a larger number of them, we needed to make sure that they are really providing the best service to the campus community.”

Following an initiative from ASSU Executives Robbie Zimbroff and William Wagstaff, a University committee studied how best to provide food trucks to locations that had limited access to food service. The committee, led by Assistant Vice President for Business Development Susan Weinstein, included representatives of multiple offices including Student Affairs and Business Development.

The committee found that the most effective way to provide food trucks on campus was through food truck management company Off the Grid, which now manages food truck pods from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. During lunch hours, one truck will be located on Lomita Mall instead of its previous parking spot on Santa Teresa Street to avoid competition with eateries at Tresidder Union.

“Our communication from Stanford has been very clear about the standards it wants us to bring to campus through the different food options that we would provide,” said Off the Grid founder Matt Cohen. “They’re really consistent with what we’re trying to do, which is really diverse food offerings that are both healthy and reliably there for people.”

Off the Grid has worked with the ASSU before, catering tailgates at football games, and Cohen expressed optimism about the continued partnership.

“We’re excited that the ASSU’s excited, and so we’re banking on them to communicate that there are these options available late at night and for people to take advantage of it,” Cohen said.

According to Zimbroff, food trucks have agreed to advertise only to people in the Stanford community, citing public safety reasons. The main methods of communicating information about the food trucks include email lists and a Facebook group that will be available only to affiliates of Stanford.

“It takes a lot to operate [food trucks]: cost, personnel and resource-wise…and still committing to a full quarter trial of bringing food trucks here late-night is really awesome of [Off the Grid],” he said.

Food truck Me So Hungry occupied the parking lot between Florence Moore Hall and Theta Delta Chi at night on Jan. 11. At about 11:30 p.m., Truck owner Johnny Cron reported that the night had been “mellow” so far.

“We didn’t expect much because it’s cold outside,” he added.

Although the food truck wasn’t busy, Cron said he was excited to be on campus.

“Since we’re a brand new truck, we’ve gotten some really good response from Off the Grid,” Cron said. “When I first bought the truck and brought it to Santa Clara, Stanford was at the top of my list, so when [Off the Grid] came to us, I didn’t even need to think about it.”

“I have no sense of how it will go,” Zimbroff said. “Initially, you expect it to be either a lag and people warm up to it, or a huge interest right off the bat and then it slows down. But either way, whichever direction it levels off, hopefully it levels off at a place where everyone can get what they’re looking for.”

http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/01/16/food-trucks-pop-up-on-campus/

Amidst record sightings of food trucks in front of Sigma Nu, the fraternity confessed in a Wednesday press release that the brotherhood is really a cover for a thriving food truck network.

Sigma Nu, usually known for members’ beer pong prowess and ability to host semi-successful day parties, detailed its backdoor food truck policies in the release, describing the mobile restaurants as its main source of revenue. The announcement came as a surprise to outsiders and brothers alike.

“This was hella unexpected,” proclaimed  fraternity treasurer Larry Burnside, positioning his snapback to a perfect 37 degree angle.  ”I always budgeted for overhead, but I had no idea that money was paying the falafel man.” Burnside went on to state his appreciation for the “dank grub” furnished by the trucks, but expressed his dissatisfaction at being kept in the dark.  ”Full disclosure and all that, know what I’m saying?”

With the secrecy of the operation compromised, the future of the business remains uncertain.  However, fraternity President Jackson Staglier voiced his confidence that the fraternity will remain a social hub on the Row.

“We make sure everyone’s having a good time and gets mad sustenance while they’re here. That’s keeping it real.”

Historical records uncovered by the Flipside suggest that the Sigma Nu house may itself be one giant food truck that ran out of gas circa 1976.

http://stanfordflipside.com/2012/11/expose-sigma-nu-actually-front-for-food-truck-business/