U. Knight Wagon to accept meal swipes, RU Express

Members of the University community — loosen your belts a notch. The University’s new mobile food truck, the Knight Wagon, will not only deliver hot meals all over campus, but is also planning to accept meal swipes.

Debuting in two weeks, the Knight Wagon will travel to all five campuses, serving a variety of foods that are in the University’s dining hall, said Nicholas Emanuel, assistant director of Dining Services.

“Most of the kids who have meal plans — that is their primary source of food. So we want to give them extra flexibility with their meal plan and we think they will enjoy that,” he said.

The Knight Wagon will accept meal swipes and RU Express, he said. Menu prices will range from $3.75 to $6.25.

The truck has a test menu, featuring options such as the “Twisted Gyro” Burger, but Dining Services is open to making changes, Emanuel said.

The Knight Wagon’s schedule does not currently have set times and locations, but students will be able to trace the wagon on its twitter account, @KnightWagon, its Facebook page, and FourSquare, said Nick Kraus, a dining hall supervisor.

“In the beginning we won’t have a set, determined schedule. It will depend on the volume but we plan to have five different stops [and] to have at least two hits in a day … depending on volume and how busy we are,” Kraus said.

Emanuel said the University would also use the truck for catering on-campus events.

“Last year we had a few events that we thought we could do much better [in] if we had some support. We thought the food truck would be [a] great way we could do this … [for] commencement [or] graduation, we have a lot of events where this truck could really help,” he said.

The Knight Wagon sports red neon lights and a 42-inch flat screen TV that can play satellite cable and DVDs, Emanuel said.

“We can put the news on or Sports Center or something like that. You have a student side with the meal plan but also [the] catering [side],” he said. “We do a lot of events … so it’s going to help us in a lot of other ways.”

The Knight Wagon is not supposed to be a University-run Grease Trucks competitor — instead its purpose is to offer students another place to use their meal plan, Emanuel said.

“You can’t really compare. Grease Trucks don’t take meal swipes and they are not dining services. We have dining halls and now we have this … it’s something different,” he said. “We didn’t do fat sandwiches for a reason — we are not looking to go that route.”

Kraus said the Knight Wagon is also convenient for students who may not have time to go into the dining hall between classes.

“If they are standing on the bus stop [and] see us … they can run real quick and get something from us … It’s just another option for the students. We are not really looking to put anybody out or put anybody out of business,” he said.

The mobile food truck will not stop near the Grease Trucks and therefore will not interfere with their customers and sales.

“I don’t think it’s going to affect it at all,” he said. “We can only handle so much business on one truck and we go to all different campuses. I can tell you right now the stops will not be near the Grease Trucks.”

Emanuel said other schools have successfully running mobile food trucks and is looking forward to this new innovation for Dining Services.

“Putting all that aside, I just think it’s a fun thing … you can’t compare it to a Grease Truck, this menu we have isn’t even close. I don’t know if it’s going to go into the culture of Grease Trucks I just know that it’s … for students to enjoy,” he said.

Megha Shah, an Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy first-year student, said she looks forward to the new Knight Wagon, even though she believes it could never replace the Grease Trucks.

“I am sure students will enjoy the new mobile food truck … the goal is to offer an alternative, I believe, not a replacement, as that [would] seem as though the mobile truck is trying to replace a historical aspect of Rutgers,” Shah said.

Monica Choi, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said the University’s truck will be useful and enjoyable for the students.

“Students will definitely enjoy the new mobile food truck,” she said. “The aesthetics of the truck and the convenience of accepting meal swipes will probably bring more hungry students to stand in line.”

Marissa Oliva also contributed to this story.