CMURC hosts second "Food Truck Friday" event
Central Michigan University Research Corporation, an on-campus organization devoted to helping small businesses, hosted its second "Food Truck Friday," event Friday.
Three different local vendors capitalized on the opportunity which Elissa Richmond-Gagne, marketing and public relations director for CMU called exciting. 
"We are all about events like this," Richmond-Gagne said. "This is yet another opportunity to connect with the community and reward our employees at the same time."
CMURC officials estimated 80 people attended last week's first-ever event, with more than 140 attendees, Friday. The organization plans to add two additional vendors next week.
Serving thin pancakes was Brandon Morey, who owns Crep Catering in Midland, said business was so successful the first week, he had to attend a second time.
"This is really comparable to the Mount Pleasant Farmers Market," Morey said. "It's an ideal location and is really a great spot for anything like this that they might want to host."
Jordan Roth owns a mobile ice cream vendor he calls "Mustache." It was his first time attending the event. Roth served pre-packaged ice cream sandwiches and soda pop out of several large coolers.
"(CMURC) really made this easy for me," Roth said. "I heard that it was going on and as soon as I got in touch, they called me right back. As a very small business, it feels good to know some people out there are trying to help you succeed."
Two CMU technical services employees, Dan Barger and Joe Neubecker wandered over to CMURC for their Friday lunch and visited with other CMU employees and local community members.
"All the food looks pretty good," Barger said.
"CMU sure doesn't let you go hungry," Neubecker added. “I hope they keep this going.”
The event is just one example of CMURC's ongoing effort to gift their employees with "Co-Work Perks.'
"We're all about trying things out and seeing if they can be effective or not," Richmond-Gagne said. "There was quite a bit of buzz and hype after last week. We had a lot of business reaching out after that. Community members. I could see us keeping this going for awhile."
Vendors that wish to participate in future “Food Truck Fridays,” events should contact CMURC at (989) 774-2424.
