Students with a sweet tooth now have five different dessert trucks on campus to satisfy their cravings. The only dessert shop on campus, Red Mango Frozen Yogurt, closed at the end of last semester.
The dessert truck rotation started on Jan. 14 after Chartwells, the university’s food service provider, presented the idea to the Student Government (SG) Senate. There is a different truck every day of the week from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Rock. Trucks include Churro Mania, Hip Pops, Gozen Yogurt, Dolci Peccati and Cold Stone Creamery.
A decision was made to close Red Mango because it was not meeting students’ standards. Jamba Juice replaced Red Mango in the Student Activities Center.
The Senate agreed to this new idea of dessert trucks on campus because they felt the trucks would give the student body more choices.
Brianna Hathaway, speaker pro tempore of the SG Senate, said Red Mango did not meet the needs of the students. Hathaway said the dessert trucks are a big opportunity to “try something new and bring greater variety onto campus.”
Chartwells contacted the most popular trucks in the Miami and Broward areas, and formed a relationship with these vendors to come on campus on a trial basis for the entire semester.
According to Joey Sanchez, director of operations for Chartwells, the Rock was chosen as the permanent site of the trucks because it “is the only place where we had the permission to allocate these dessert trucks.”
Aside from this, the Rock is also located next to the UC Breezeway where student organizations and most students travel through on their way to and from classes.
The prices vary across the different dessert trucks from $3 to $6.
Sophomore Austin King stood in a line of 20 people last week.
“I make my way by these trucks twice a week, and I love them because you get a flavor here that you can’t find anywhere else,” he said.
Chartwells measures the satisfaction levels through daily sales, customer counts and surveys that are administered each semester primarily to students. The specific numbers were not disclosed.
Michael Ross, the resident district manager for Chartwells, says the company will revisit the issue if students’ needs are not being met.
“If this new implementation of dessert options on campus is not meeting the students’ expectations, then Chartwells will consider meeting again with the student Senate to discuss further possibilities,” he said.