New food truck to pull up on campus this month

Lehigh Dining Services will introduce Simply Skewered, its second food truck, later this month.

The truck will serve Tarasco-Brazilian inspired barbecue at several locations around campus, including outside STEPS, the UC Front Lawn and Mountaintop. Lehigh meal plans and Goldplus will be accepted as well as most credit cards and cash.

Simply Skewered will offer beef, vegetable and two chicken specialty kebabs topped with homemade sauces. All entrees will be served with white rice, seasoned vegetables, Brazilian cabbage slaw and a choice of sauce.

Dan Burke, the manager of concessions and the Füd Truk, said Simply Skewered will serve food during lunch and dinner hours, unlike the Füd Truck, which only serves meals during breakfast and lunch hours.

“We’re really excited about this menu because we think it’s unique to Lehigh University and the Lehigh Valley,” said Evan Rehrig, the marketing manager for Lehigh Dining. 

Rehrig said his team completed research on popular food trends and saw that “food on a stick” was on the rise.  Burke said Dining Services also surveyed student opinion through Student Senate for several years and found that barbecue food was a popular option.

“Everybody does barbecue though,” Burke said. “So, if we’re going to do barbecue, we’re going to have to do something different.”

That’s when Brazilian cuisine came into play.

Burke said Simply Skewered will be different because it will offer kebab-style food cooked on spitz, rather than a regular grill, served in eco-friendly containers.

Rehrig said he and his team identified the need for a new food truck based on the increasing size of the student population. Because of Lehigh’s increasingly diverse student body, Rehrig said there are diverse dietary preferences that need to be considered and represented on campus.

“There’s a growing population of students that keep halal and we need to cater to every need,” Rehrig said.

Jafer Hasani, ’19, has had a difficult experience keeping halal because of a lack of on-campus options.

“I’ve been pushing to increase access to halal food on campus for the past four years, whether it was through joining Student Senate or through my involvement in the Muslim Student Association,” Hasani said.

Hasani said these efforts have been somewhat successful and he is excited to see that the university has recognized the issue and is taking steps to address it.

Editor’s note: Lehigh Dining Services received an update that the truck will not be on campus until December.