The food trucks near Academic Building IV on the Sam Houston State University campus have been a large success with students and faculty. However, when it comes to days with bad weather, students may need to look for other options on campus.
For example, on March 28 the food trucks were forced to close due to thunderstorms.
“It’s for our safety,” Chick-fil-A food truck operator Nafis Shaige said. “We have all these wires and stuff, and everything is out in the open. So if there is a thunderstorm, it could cause damage to us.”
According to Shaige, the operators look at the weather predictions daily to see if there is a chance of rain or thunderstorms in the area in case they need to close.
“We have only had to shut down the food trucks once this semester because of really bad weather,” Aramark marketing manager for food services at SHSU Logan Hickle said. “It’s for the safety of our employees. They need to bring products across campus and it’s not safe when they have to carry heavy items like that.”
Aramark updates SHSU students any time they may need to close the trucks through its social media pages and by posting signs on the food trucks.
According to Hickle, the food trucks are not owned by SHSU, but are leased. Therefore, when it comes to inclement weather they have to take precautions to protect the trucks from water or storm damage. The mobile registers that are used outside cannot fit inside of the trucks. When a storm approaches they have to take necessary precautions to protect them, otherwise they could be out of business for a couple of weeks instead of only one day.
The food trucks have now been open for almost a month, and students have been very receptive of them.
“The options for food are fair,” sophomore Mass Communications major Duke Gima said. “They switch it up every day and [Smoken Sammy’s] has at least three or four items on each menu and every day it’s different.”
According to Gima, he eats at the food trucks almost every day, and when it is raining he eats off-campus or in his dorm, so the food trucks closing does not bother him much.
While some students are not affected by the inclement weather other students do not eat at the food trucks since the locations have left the Lowman Student Center. “I used to get just a sandwich at Chick-fil-A for lunch, but I didn’t even know they had moved them at first and now I just don’t really eat lunch,” junior Animal Science major Connelly Cooper said. Another reason he gave was that they are further onto campus, so it makes more sense for him to study during his lunch break instead of going all the way to the food trucks.
When the food trucks close due to inclement weather there are many other options on campus for students. There are two Starbucks locations, one in the Newton Gresham Library and one in South Paw dining hall, as well as the General’s Market, Old Main Market and the Provisions on Demand stands in the Lee Drain Building and College of Humanities and Social Sciences building.
