The Call Of The Food Truck — A Way To Finance A College Education

Leigh Ann Tona, a recent graduate of the University of Delaware, came up with the concept for her food truck, I Don’t Give a Fork, in an entrepreneurship class her senior year.

SHE WROTE A DETAILED BUSINESS PLAN FOR THE TRUCK AND LANDED A $75K LOAN

University of Delaware students flocked to the truck, eager to get their hands on the cart’s specialty hoagie sandwiches, pulled pork nachos and other creations like the mac & cheesesteak. Buoyed by the cart’s success, Tona wrote a detailed business plan for the food truck, eventually convincing a local Delaware bank to loan her $75,000 so she could purchase a food truck. She now spends her days driving all over the state, hitting folk festivals, the Delaware Museum of Natural History and popular campus spots. She oversees three employees, and is already starting to mull over plans to buy a second truck.

“I’m more of a business person than a chef, and I think that’s what made it work,” Tona said. “Anyone can make a sandwich, but it was definitely my knowledge of business that propelled things.”

Jack and Max Barber of Mainely Burgers manage an even larger cadre of employees. This season, the brothers employed 16 high school and college students to dish up the popular items like “The Mainah” a juicy burger served with cheddar cheese, sliced apples, sautéed onion, bacon and maple mayo, and truffle fries, and help out a catering events. An added bonus? Revenue was up 30 percent this summer over last, Jack Barber said.

“For now, I’ve just been focused on making sure I have food for the next day, but come fall I’m going to take a step back and see what the next step will be for the company,” he said.

LATKE GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES, ANYONE?

Ari Shifman, a pre-law business major and senior at Tulane University in New Orleans, is a newbie to the market. He and another friend, Leo Rubini, both of whom grew up eating latkes in their Jewish homes, started a food cart last winter called Fleur de Latkes, serving up their signature dish, a latke grilled cheese sandwich, to the hungry Tulane bar crowd that gathers outside of the popular Booth Bar. “We always imagined latkes could do more than just hold apple sauce,” Shifman said.

They sold out of the sandwiches in 45 minutes on their first night of business, and since then have expanded their offerings to include  open-faced barbeque chicken latkes and a candied pear and brie latke. They submitted a business presentation on the company into the Tulane Business Model Competition last year (see below), and though they didn’t win, they received $1,000 in seed money. Shifman’s business background, coupled with a passion for entrepreneurship, helped him make the cart a success story against the odds, he said.

“I’m not a chef and I didn’t know that much about the food business,” said Shifman, who is still trying to decide whether he and his partner will continue the business this school year. “We were flying by the seat of our pants, but it worked.”