University of Wisconsin’s Housing and Dining Services has partnered with Madison Gas and Electric to bring an electric food truck to campus in an effort to expand accessible sustainability.
The truck will be completely electric, and will offer locally sourced, seasonal food options with a special focus on vegetarian and vegan choices, Sustainability Coordinator Olivia Dikeman said.
Students will be able to view the truck’s location and schedule on University Housing’s website, as the current plan is to offer breakfast and lunch at places across campus on a rotating basis, Electric Eats Student Coordinator Libby Breider said in an email to The Badger Herald.
“The electric food truck is the first of its kind for UW-Madison,” Breider said. “We place a large emphasis on supporting local companies and gardens to reduce our environmental footprint.”
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In addition to providing more dining choices to UW students, staff and faculty, Breider said another aim of the food truck is to bring awareness to the importance of sustainable food choices that are also affordable.
The food-truck task force — consisting of organizations from all over campus — even worked with a UW class to determine which food packaging company had the smallest ecological impact for the food truck to partner with since another main goal of the food truck is to be as low-waste as possible, Dikeman said.
The student-led project is being financed by the Green Fund through the Office of Sustainability after a UW student, now graduate, conducted the bulk of the research and cost analysis to write a grant proposal last year, Dikeman said.
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The task force also worked to form solid relationships with farmers and food producers in the area in order to provide a menu with all locally-sourced ingredients, Dikeman said.
“These connections will be important in increasing knowledge and awareness of what can be done to be sustainable around campus,” Breider said.
While the weather has been somewhat uncooperative, Dikeman and Breider hope the launch of the truck will be before the end of the semester.
Additionally, they plan to make the food truck available during campus events, outside of its weekday operating schedule.
“I think that if this food truck really goes well, [and] hopefully having more of them on campus, [it] can really lead to huge strides in sustainability, in terms of energy use in our dining facilities and making sustainable food options available to everyone,” Dikeman said.
