Junior Samantha Garza, co-president of Mi Gente, brought concerns about the lack of Latinx food options on campus to the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee Thursday.
Currently, no on-campus eatery, food truck or Merchants-on-Point program vendor is dedicated to serving Latinx food—besides the Chef's Kitchen, a pop-up restaurant in West Union that serves Mexican food for lunch and is meant to have a rotating theme.
Garza said she has met with Fares Hanna—owner of Twinnie's, Blue Express, Farmstead and Sprout—to discuss the prospect of Blue Express adding Latinx menu items. Mi Gente is still concerned, however, that Blue Express’s location is “out of the way” compared to West Union’s, Garza noted.
“We’re really trying to push for something that’s visible and something that’s accessible—maybe not your grab-and-go food, but more of a sit down Latin meal,” Garza said.
Blue Express did recently start offering new Latinx food options on a rotating basis, noted Robert Coffey, director of dining services.
Garza said she will be meeting with other owners of campus vendors to discuss the addition of Latinx food options to more eateries on campus.
She also noted that she has received feedback from other Latinx groups on campus and the Students of the Caribbean Association, which expressed that Caribbean food was not well represented on campus either.
Coffey requested a list of specific menu items that Garza and Latinx student organizations would like to see offered, and DUSDAC chair Brian Taylor—Trinity ‘16 and a current master’s student in the Nicholas School of the Environment—asked for restaurant suggestions that could be considered as potential new vendors.
“Food trucks and MOPs are a way to fill vacancies we have in food campus options,” Taylor said.
Since Parlez-Vous Crêpe dropped out of the food truck line-up earlier in the semester due to low sales, its slot in the program has remained open. Two to three slots are also currently open for the MOP delivery program, Taylor said.
The committee brought up Makus Empanadas, a Durham restaurant, as a possible option for the MOP program.
One committee member also noted that Guasaca Arepa and Salsa Grill, which was discussed for a few meetings as a potential MOP addition, has expressed that it is not ready to handle the volume of deliveries it would face as an MOP.
In other business:
Inconsistencies in the food trucks showing up at their assigned locations have been “major,” Coffey said. Gussy's food truck has been one of the only ones that have been consistent, with Gus Megaloudis, the owner of Gussy's, reporting up to $400 in sales per night, Coffey added.
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