Phone eats first: DUSDAC’s expanding social media presence, food truck rodeo

At the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday, student representatives discussed the possibility of a food truck rodeo and the group’s social media strategy.

Food trucks

Based off the popularity of the new food trucks outside Wannamaker dorm, DUSDAC revisited the idea of planning a food truck rodeo. The group planned a similar event for last year which was canceled due to rain.

“The purpose of the food truck rodeo is that we’re looking for trucks that would be sustainable on our program,” explained Aris Marton, associate director of retail operations for Duke Dining. “This is kind of like their ‘audition’ for the following year.”

Senior and DUSDAC Co-Chair Allie Rauch noted that the difficulties of the food truck rodeo would be the logistical planning, money and the limited number of trucks on the current DUSDAC program. However, the group agreed that the rodeo would still be a positive event to raise student awareness of food trucks.

Social media

DUSDAC is also planning to expand their social media presence through their new Instagram, @dusdac. There, they discussed posting food reviews, photos of food trucks, dining events and promoting dining news. 

“Anything that hypes up Duke Dining,” Rauch said.

Grayson Crabtree, training and customer service coordinator, told DUSDAC that according to data comparing dates from January last year to the same dates in January today, the number of visitors at Pitchfork’s has gone up by 300 per day.

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