Veteran Stanford Food Truck Driven Off Campus with New Policy

STANFORD, CA – Net Appetit, a popular food truck that has served Thai food on Santa Teresa Avenue for more than a decade, has been asked by the University to cease operations on campus as part of Stanford’s new mobile food vendor policy, which took effect on Jan. 7 of this year.

Chon Vo, founder and operator of Net Appetit, has operated the truck on the Stanford campus since 2001. All Vo’s profits go to Aid to Children Without Parents (ACWP), a nonprofit organization that provides two meals to children in Vietnam for every dollar donated by the truck.

Stanford’s new policy regarding food trucks mandates that trucks must register with Off The Grid, a food truck management company that has partnered with the University for the winter pilot program to bring food trucks to campus.

Assistant Vice President for Business Development Susan Weinstein ’72 MBA ’79 who helped draft the mobile food vendor policy, declined a request for interview but released a statement saying the notice about the food truck policy and its implementation was given to trucks operating on campus beginning last November.

“The notice informed the trucks that they would be required to have a permit from Off the Grid in order to continue

[to] serve campus beginning on Jan. 7, and also contained information on how the food trucks could register with Off The Grid,” Weinstein wrote.

Vo was informed of the decision through an unsigned notice from the Stanford University Department of Public Safety on Dec. 7, one week before the University closed for winter break.

“On Dec. 7, the campus police dropped off the letter,” Vo said. “We only had one week to react, and the letter wasn’t signed, so we didn’t know how to get in touch.”

Since then, he has tried unsuccessfully to appeal to administrators, citing a spotless health record.

“That’s the thing that perplexed us the most,” Vo said. “If we violated stuff like the food safety, then of course we know why, but we have a good record of 11 years. Not a single violation– a spotless record.”

Students and other members of the Stanford community have sent Vo more than 200 emails expressing sadness over the absence of Net Appetit.

Find the entire article by Samantha Lynn at the Stanford Daily <here>