What does community engagement look like? Sometimes it looks like hundreds of people gathering in central campus to talk, catch up with one another and eat delicious food from local food trucks!
When NIU Director of Community Promotion Jennifer Groce invited graduate student Cesar Castillo to help her organize Food Truck Wednesdays as part of his graduate assistantship in the Division of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development, he jumped at the chance.
NIU Students wait in line for Wild Fries food truck.
“Food Truck Wednesdays are a great example of the magic of community engagement,” Castillo says. “Just promoting a sense of community and belonging among each other.”
Castillo is a first-generation college student who graduated with his bachelor’s degree in political science from NIU this past year. Now, as a Master of Public Administration student with a focus on local government management, Castillo has a special place in his heart for college towns and the exciting possibilities of campus and community collaborations.
“I’m very intrigued about how municipalities engage with their residents,” Castillo says. “Having grown up in the suburbs, it was exciting to come to a college town like NIU, where I could easily walk from place to place. I felt a real sense of community.”
Cesar Castillo
As Castillo learned, building community requires a recipe of one part local connections, one part effective communication, and two parts meticulous planning and organization. Working closely with Groce, Castillo reached out to local vendors to see if they’d be available from late August to late October. The team had to ensure the vendors were licensed in DeKalb County to serve food, plan out the spacing of trucks and schedule carefully to ensure a balanced mix of food and drink options each week.
“In the end, it worked very effectively,” Castillo says. “We estimate that 700 to 800 people attended each week. I saw faculty catching up with one another and students talking to one another, as well. We collaborated closely with the Campus Activities Board, and they provided games on the MLK commons including an oversize game of chess and tricycles for people to ride on. It gave the feeling that the campus is really, truly alive.”
Learn more about Food Truck Wednesdays – and how the owners of one food truck gave back to the NIU community – in this NIU Today story.
