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We’re sure when you think “college food” one of two things happens: either your brain fills up with fiberglass trays loaded with the most basic food service fare available, or you consider leaving campus to hit Culver’s or something. But what if we told you campus food can now follow you…and that you’d welcome the experience?

 

We sat down at the UW Stevens Point DeBot Center, hub of all things campus food related, to talk to Marshall and Olivia about Stevie’s Food Truck – a food truck owned and operated entirely by UWSP, its staff, and students.

The food truck phenomenon cannot go unnoticed these days. You see them everywhere and at almost every event that people gather. As a matter of fact, food truck festivals are a popular attraction and a great way to try new food from local restaurants.

 

So why did UWSP decide to add a food truck to their fleet? Well, it all began with Olivia, the university Communications and Marketing team, and an MBA fellowship project.

 

Olivia says their goal for the project was to create more ways that the university can use funds and connect with the Stevens Point and surrounding communities in a new way. They didn’t have a specific plan at first, and they needed a plan before they could discuss the project with UWSP executives.

 

The first step was to an advisory board with people from the community - from blue collar lines of work, from the university or with ties to the university, as well as people who had no ties to the university. With such a diverse group of people, they gathered a lot of opinions about how the university could get involved in the community and on campus. Not just how to support the community, but, Marshall added, also create some revenue. What came out of that advisory board was the idea of a food truck as a way of putting the campus food program outside the boundaries of UWSP.

 

Olivia had full support from the university to run with the idea. Marshall joined a little later when they were looking for people to manager and market the food truck and get out into the community. Someone mentioned his name in one of the meetings, and when they approached him, he was glad to take the position.

 

Olivia started the project in October 2021, and they got the stamp of approval from UWSP executives in March of 2022. At that point, apart from some research and support, Olivia stepped out of the project and the executive chef took over. The project was completed in June 2023, and Stevie’s Food Truck debuted at the end of the month.

 

The official rollout of Stevie’s Food Truck was quiet, but obvious. They simply parked the truck in Lot R on campus so people could see it while they were going to the 23^rd US Senior Open Championship Golf Tournament at Sentry World in the summer of 2023. It made quite the impression!

 

                                                                          

 

While it’s not too uncommon for a university to operate a food truck, Stevie’s Food Truck is the only one in the UW system…so far. You’re more likely to find a food truck in a bigger university, serving a larger metropolitan area – usually the east or west coast.

 

In fact, Olivia and her team were able to find a couple other universities that had food trucks in order to prove the idea would work and get some ideas for how the operation could be run. But the premise of why they wanted a food truck and the way they planned to use it was a bit different than the other universities.

 

Of course, no great ideas come without a challenge. While nothing really stood in their way once they had the support of UWSP, the concept was new enough that developing all the details to get the project running fell on the team. While the community has food trucks (and we’ve even spoken with one of them), the university itself had never done anything like that. Olivia’s team had to delve into the food truck association membership, talk to fellow members, find out about events, what to expect when working different events, and a lot of the minutiae of maintaining, registering, stocking, and otherwise running a tiny restaurant on wheels.

 

Starting at ground level, the team had to learn about menus, sales, customer counts, where to go, good events and locations in town, and all the rest of the nuts and bolts of just running a food truck. On top of that, they had to figure out how to market a university food truck. Because Stevie’s Food Truck is the university’s, complete with all the branding and staff, it represents UWSP when it’s out in the community. There are extra branding and public image concerns beyond what normal food trucks are involved with.

 

So the first bite, as they say, is with the eyes: how do you assemble and brand a university food truck? Everything led with the menu. The truck needed to be able to produce and sustain a certain type of menu item based on what they wanted to sell at events. With such limited space in a rolling kitchen, everything has to support the menu, from the size and orientation of the equipment to the overall size of the truck, where windows and access ports are located, power consumption, holding tank…everything!

                               

 

Marshall says the truck, like everything in the UW system, had to go out for bids from vendors. When it came in, they had a brand new truck with, as he says, an engine, a steering wheel, and beams out the back with a box on top. They were able to start with a brand new truck, but they had to decide on every detail. They wanted to keep it small, but of course the truck got longer and longer as the team added features.

 

They wanted to make sure they could offer a varied menu that could change so the truck wasn’t stuck in one mode. You can’t have a menu that’s going to get stale. To handle that variety of food items, the truck was outfitted to support barbecue, Southwest cuisine, dedicated mac & cheese menu, picnic-style menus, and more. They can even develop a menu specifically for a special event, but Marshall says they’re most known for their smash burgers. When the truck pulls in, people are ready for smash burgers. Currently they have some weddings and graduations on their schedule.

 

When Stevie’s Food Truck rolls up to an event, Marshall says there are typically only two people working: himself and Brittany. They can fit up to four people in the truck, but at that point, nobody can really move anywhere. Usually they can have two people at the windows taking orders and handing out orders, and two people preparing the food.

 

Speaking of food, while Stevie’s Food Truck is relatively representative of the campus’s culinary offerings (all the recipes are in their C-Board menu management system), everything is made from scratch by the UWSP culinary staff. The staff is fantastic, and capable of creating a variety of amazing meals they can use across all of the campus divisions that serve food. With any aspect of their food service, they can create entirely new menus to use – not just for the food truck, but for on-campus catering and more.

 

The versatility of the food truck is what sets it apart from other area food trucks. It can have a flexible menu tailored to a specific event, and it will be there as long as the event is ready to give it a challenge. After all, one of the two reasons the truck exists is to bring in some revenue, so Marshall says the event needs to be able to support the time, staff, and food resources used. So far, they haven’t met an event they can’t handle.

 

Olivia says one of the early pitches to the UWSP executives in favor of the food truck involved the Point Bock Run, a local 5k run in Stevens Point that’s held on the first Saturday in March. It’s a large enough event to challenge a team of food trucks, and being able to offer something different to not compete with other vendors was a big win. Adapting their menu for homecoming, weddings, and other events or customer bases lets them keep the menu fresh, seasonal, and exciting. Stevie’s is like a Swiss army food truck.

 

Marshall agrees with her, too. He’s the one who puts in applications for different events around the central Wisconsin area, like Wausau, Stevens Point, Coloma, and Westfield. He’s able to see what other vendors will be serving and decide how they can mix it up and offer something different. Customers appreciate the variety, and Stevie’s isn’t duplicating what other food trucks might be serving at the event.

 

Remember though, the revenue angle is only half of the project. The big reason for creating a food truck that operates out of the UW Stevens Point is the community impact. It’s a way for UWSP to break out of campus limitations. Not only does it get representatives of the university out into the community, it gives the community a better look at what the campus has to offer. Marshall says that being on the truck when they are at events locally and regionally, he can give people a taste of the talent within UWSP from a culinary standpoint. People are usually surprised at what they can produce, the quality of the food, and all the other things UWSP can do, both involving and outside of Stevie’s Food Truck. Most people don’t realize UWSP has a catering service available in the community!

 

When Olivia and the executive team discussed it, that was one big point that they were trying to make: they needed to expand and let people know what they can do, what they have to offer, and how they can support the community. As a sort of ambassador of all things UWSP, the food truck is a massive asset to have!

 

Extending UWSP’s reach off campus also includes their other campuses! Marshall says they are also supporting the UWSP Marshfield and the UWSP Wausau campus. They have set up dates for this year to set up on those campuses for lunches and to support their staff and students. This helps them with their marketing and supports their services. That would be the extent of their usual operating radius, though they did have an event in Antigo. One of the upcoming weddings is out toward Eau Claire, and they have a graduation in Appleton. They don’t want to drive too far, though. They need to watch their food to make sure it travels well and stays fresh.

 

Luckily, there is more support for food trucks in the area than ever before. The Portage County Business Council worked with local food trucks in central Wisconsin to help create the Central Wisconsin Food Truck Association. Their website recently went live, and they are creating a board of directors. The CWFTA will be a great resource to help drive business for local food trucks, discuss events, how to plan, and provide information, tips, and historical context.

 

Support is important, because Wisconsin poses a very particular challenge to food truck owners: temperature. If it’s still in the 20s or 30s, there’s no problem. But when the temperature drops lower than that, there are issues with heat and water. The health department frowns on those sorts of issues.

 

Marshall says even though they’ve been learning a lot of surprising details about what’s involved in operating a food truck, they haven’t hit any huge issues. Their first year was still a learning experience, but this year they know what they’re capable of.

 

If you want to see where Stevie’s Food Truck will be next (and even book the food truck for your event), you can visit www.uwsp.edu/dining/university-dining-services/stevies-food-truck When booking for an event, you can fill out the form with your information and the type of event and menu, and someone will usually respond within a day or two.

 

Big thanks to Marshall and Olivia for sharing their story, and now we’re kind of hungry for some smash burgers! But first, we have to take a quick…

 

Road Trip

 

We usually take a break for a road trip, but the roads will only take us so far with today’s destination, and after that we’re on foot, deep underground. Of course we’re visiting Cave of the Mounds, a national landmark about 20 minutes outside of Madison in (appropriately) Blue Mounds, Wisconsin.

 

Rob says he actually has not been to Cave of the Mounds yet, but it is one of five tour-worthy caves you can visit in Wisconsin! With a variety of family friendly activities, including self-guided tours, there’s a little something for everyone. Tours take less than an hour. Even if you’re not keen on the underground parts of the attraction, they offer wildlife tours and more.

 

The caves are open year round, since they stay an even 50 degrees no matter the season. At their deepest, the caves reach about 57 feet underground. That’s not too far, but once you’re in the cave, it might feel like you’re deeper than you actually are. There are parts of the cave system that have yet to be explored, but so far 57 feet is what to expect.

 

Brooklyn says that even looking at photos of the cave, it looks like a completely different world! They offer a black light tour where you can see the cave from a whole new perspective! You can take a self-guided tour, or a full guided tour if you want to learn all sorts of cool things about the caves and have all your questions answered by their professional tour guides. And if you hit their website (and scroll down a bit) they even offer a virtual tour!

 

One of the tours they offer is a lantern tour, which Brooklyn says sound kind of spooky but cool, and a nice way to experience the cave the way it was discovered in 1939. The cave system was accidentally discovered back then by limestone quarry workers, and the property is still owned by the same family that owned it back in the mid-1800s. So even though it is a National Natural Landmark, the property is owned by one family!

 

If you’re looking for an interesting Wisconsin experience that can go as quickly or as detailed as you like, visit the Cave of the Mounds. It’s a fascinating trip, no matter if you’re interested in caves, history, or just looking for a new experience.