MICHAEL WILLSON
Staff Writer
It is Saturday evening. You are hungry from a long day of shenanigans and you need food. Not just snacks from the vending machine, but real food. You need an actual meal but the dining hall and the Grille are closed. How about Cook Out? Oh, that’s right; you do not have a car, and you cannot find anyone to give you a ride. Well, I have good news; in a few weeks, food trucks will be coming onto campus to serve Marlins who have the midnight munchies.
When I say food trucks, I do not mean ones from generic companies with everyday food. I mean legitimate restaurants on wheels with menus that we all know and love. Like most Marlins, I am more than excited to hear this news. We are college students. College students do not have normal schedules. We might feel like having a meal at 2 a.m. It is good to know that soon we will have options here on campus, instead of trying to find a place in Norfolk that is open.
However, there is a catch. The food trucks are only going to come on the weekends. I guess this makes sense, because the weekend is when most students are up late partying. However, the weekend is not the only time students are up late. When you are pulling an all-nighter, a warm meal sounds really good, right? It will be especially useful during exam week. You cannot study on an empty stomach.
I would like to see this go another step forward. It would be great if more restaurants opened up in Batten. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the dining hall or the Grille. They both serve very tasty and nutritious dishes (I personally love the Grille’s chicken tenders), but it would be nice if we could have more options here on campus. The situation would not be as bad if our campus was in a more convenient location, but because our campus is pretty much an isolated, gated community, it is not easy to find restaurants that are within walking distance. True, we have restaurants like Cook Out down the road, but they are neither convenient, nor safe, to walk to.
Having more restaurants on our campus would also help bring in new Marlins. When I was a senior in high school looking at different colleges, the tour guides would always show off the different restaurants. Longwood University had a Sweetfrog. Radford had an Austin Grill. West Virginia University had a Burger King. I am not saying that we should bribe students with restaurants, since good food is not the sole reason to choose a school, but it can certainly be a contributing factor since all of these schools are fairly large.
But for now, I am content with the food trucks. Good things happen one step at a time. These new food trucks might be the first stepping stone to getting a plethora of food choices on campus.
