Ben Madilynn
The Hungry Cat food truck started accepting students’ traditional meal swipes for the 2024 academic year.
Previously, students could use credit cards, Bobcat Cash or Flex Points at the food truck.
Entrees at the food truck cost $5.95 to $6.95, drinks cost $1.00 to $1.89, sides and snacks cost $1.49 to $3.75 and desserts cost $1.75 and $2.50.
Now, students can get an entree and a side for one meal swipe between 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Drinks must be bought separately.
Frank Pazzanese, the executive director of culinary services, said the idea to allow meal swipes at Hungry Cat was due to the larger influx of students and offer more choices of places to eat.
Culinary services added the option of Brick City Deli On The Go and Earl’s Coop last school year, both of which accept meal swipes. Pazzanese said culinary services will find more options to add if attendance continues to grow.
“I think it’s important to give the students the ability to use their meal plans,” Pazzanese said. “Sometimes (students) just want what I call walking food – something they can grab quick because they have time to get to class, and they don’t have time to actually sit down and use silverware in place.”
Chito Trinidad, the assistant director of retail operations, said 90% of the menu had to be changed to allow meal swipes at Hungry Cat.
“With our chef team, we’ve done some fun, creative menu items that I think bring so much value to the meal swipe for the students,” Trinidad said.
Trinidad said some items, such as the Korean fried chicken wrap and the Cuban sandwich, were switched in to maintain relevance to the current food culture.
“The time and effort that went into manipulating that menu was amazing,” Pazzanese said. “I remember at five o’clock at night getting off work with Chito and some of the other directors. We’d go down to the culinary studio to test food that they were practicing for the two trucks, mostly Hungry Cat,”
When Boyd Dining Hall was renovated in 2015, Hungry Cat started accepting meal swipes.
“The Hungry Cat was a solution for that,” Trinidad said.
The food truck moved to its current location on the top of Morton Hill in 2016.
Joshua Jacob, a freshman studying journalism, often eats at Hungry Cat because of the truck’s convenient operating times.
“I think it’s super convenient,” Jacob said. “The reason we go there is because we have a lot of events that go till 8 or 9 (p.m.) … since they’re open really late, it’s really convenient on the way back from WOUB.”
Nelson Court is open until 9 p.m., and Boyd Dining Hall is open until 8:30 p.m.; however, Earls Coop and Jefferson Market are open later most nights.
“I have really two options,” Jacob said. “It’s easy to go to Earls, but obviously it’s not the healthiest … (Jefferson Market) is kind of inconvenient because it is more out of the way, and it’s a little pricey when it comes to food portions and meal swipes, but that’s the only two other options.”
Jacob said he wishes more places on campus accepted meal swipes and believes that they would receive more business if they did.
“It’d be nice if other dining halls were open a bit later or if we had a couple more options,” Jacob said. “I haven’t gotten bored of (Hungry Cat) yet, but it would be nice to have a couple more options.”
Pazzanese said adding a new dining hall is a long process, as the culinary team has to talk with consulting firms to develop new ideas.
“It’s much like building a house,” Pazzanese said. “You have a really good idea, and this is what the land looks like. Then, you bring the contractor, and they go, ‘Well, no, we’re gonna have to grade the land a little bit more.’ Then, we have to bring in different utilities from the street.”
Currently, plans are being made to possibly put a dining experience in the West Green Courtyard and to expand the items offered in the marketplaces, according to Pazzanese.
“We don’t have any specific places yet, but it takes a fair assessment of what the current student needs are and what they’re going to be in the next five years,” Trinidad said.
