A Best Truck-ing BBQ food truck set up shop on a college campus near Roo-sevelt Road as students, staff and community members lined up to grab their lunch.
National University of Health Sciences in Lombard held its first of four Food Truck Fridays on Sept. 5.
Lauren Spann, friend of a faculty member, reacted to the event’s turnout as she and her friends purchased food there rather than dining at local takeout restaurants.
“You can only hit restau-rants so often. The food truck offers something new.”
Best Trucking BBQ is best known for The Interstate, a BBQ pulled pork sandwich with pomegranate BBQ sauce. Customers can get the regu-lar-size sandwich with chips for $7 or the slider for $3.50.
Second-year student Alexa Sheppard ate her BBQ pulled pork sandwich on a pretzel bun while she and friends sat at a round table talking about their purchases.
Ranking the experience a 10 out of 10, Sheppard noted how food trucks bring people together.
“Everyone gets to share each other’s bites,” she said.
The university will have different food trucks stopping by every Friday in September.While the event is open to the public, bringing food trucks to the university, be-tween Janse Hall and the LRC near Lake Janse, is part of an initiative to engage students on campus.
“We decided to bring the food and fun to them because [students] usually have pretty busy schedules,” said Tracy Litsey, National University of Health Science public rela-tions representative.
Food trucks are a “new novelty,” according to Litsey, who said student buzz around the event could prompt the university to extend it beyond the planned four weeks.
A poll will be conducted at the end of the four weeks to gauge in-terest.
Sarah Brooks, a sec-ond-year student, commented on how the limited accessibil-ity of [the event] adds to the hype.
She said the fact that the food truck is on wheels and can move at any moment means you might miss out if you’re not around.
The university posted fly-ers on its website and around campus to promote the event.
Many students often visit local restaurants in the area because there is no cafeteria on campus. With Food Truck Fridays, the University gives students another option.
“We researched food trucks in the area and we tried to find a good match,” said Litsey, recognizing that students at the university have a wide variety of tastes and diets.
Melanie Beard of Glendale Heights said she hopes to see Best Trucking BBQ at a future Food Truck Friday.
“I would order The Ex-pressway on a pretzel bun,” Beard said.