Student-created food truck doubles as indoor pop-up eatery at Dartmouth

When you’re on a college campus, you have a lot of resources available to you, so why not take advantage of them? That’s exactly what happened at Dartmouth when graduate students developed the Box food truck. 

The concept was created two years ago as an independent study project by Tuck students Mike Parshley and Eric Winn and rolled out—literally—a year ago as a functioning concern.

An unusual aspect of the concept is that it operates in two different ways depending on the time of the year. It’s a traditional food truck when the weather is warm, but as winter sets in, the concept is moved indoors and operates from a service window inside the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration building on the Dartmouth campus.

The Box is currently administered by a team of Tuck students from the class of 2017. When they graduate, they will turn the reins over to group of first-year Tuck students hired earlier this year who are currently interning to take over.

The truck is an independent business that operates on campus in partnership with Dartmouth Dining Services and offers a unique menu designed to complement Dartmouth Dining’s offerings. 

“It was supported by Dartmouth as well as Tuck,” says current CEO Lane McVey. “A lot of institutional support from the school went into getting it off the ground.”

The menu is overseen by Executive Chef and longtime local culinary figure Rion Triplett, who was hired this past June. It changes frequently, often weekly according to McVey, to take advantage of available fresh product. 

Mediterranean specialties such as falafel, hummus, tzatziki and zaatar (flatbread flavored with a spice combination that traditionally includes thyme, oregano, sumac, marjoram and sesame) are year-round staples. The falafel, the Box’s most popular item, is made fresh and comes on a pita, in a salad or in a grain bowl.

These are complemented with seasonal selections: soups like potato leek and entrees like slow-roasted pork shoulder, chicken potpie and Thai red curry pork meatballs. The current menu includes a shredded kale dish made with butternut squash, dried cranberries and a honey balsamic dressing, which illustrates a priority to serve the needs of vegetarian students.

The Box only operates during the lunch daypart, mostly over the noon hour. When the truck is operational, it sets up at one of two approved parking locations on campus (though it has permission for several others if it wants to use them) and serves an average of 100 to 150 customers on a busy day when classes are in full session. During the summer, counts fall off to 50 to 75 with the reduced campus population. Production takes place in one of Dartmouth Dining’s kitchens.

When the cold weather sets in and the concept moves indoors, its service window opens off a kitchen where the food can be prepared. Daily counts average around 60, mostly from Tuck students and staff as the building is a bit out of the way for student son the main campus.

Because the staff consists of full-time students, expanding the service windows is problematic, McVey says, though the Box menu is available at other hours as a catering option for campus events like faculty lunches, company briefings, executive education events and various academic programs and symposiums. 

“We tried [late-night dining] but steered away from that after a little while because of the labor that was required to clean the truck during the night after it shut down,” she explains.