“Grilled Cheesus” and “Tufts Crepes,” the popular, unofficial student groups hosting food vending events around campus, plan to continue functioning despite intervention into Grilled Cheesus’ operations from Residential Life staff and changing business plans.
Since the start of the fall semester, the two groups of first-year students have been hosting events and vending food. Grilled Cheesus had been selling grilled cheese sandwiches in the Houston Hall common spaces until they were asked to stop by the Residential Life coordinators; they have since switched to hosting free events that occur less frequently. Tufts Crepes, who have been selling crepes on the sidewalk around Metcalf, are currently taking a break between events as they have started to work on a new project while expanding their operations.
According to the team behind Grilled Cheesus, who asked to remain anonymous because their previous activities had violated the Tufts licensing agreement, they were inspired to create their business after sharing Hodgon Food-on-the-Run quesadillas for dinner one night.
“It was [a late Thursday night] where three of us went down to Hodge to get a quesadilla, and we were like, ‘This is a really good quesadilla … another step would be to make it a grilled cheese and repeat this on Thursday nights because it was the perfect, satiating craving,’” one founding member said. The group promoted their first event on Instagram with their account @tuftsgrilledcheesus.
During the event, members of the Grilled Cheesus team adopted an assembly line approach: some people would cook the sandwiches on the stove, while others took orders, assembled the sandwiches and delivered them to attendees.
“The nights I went to grilled cheese, a lot of people were there, and they were all having a good time,” first-year event attendee Thomas Park said. “They had music. The founders were working on the grilled cheeses, and then everyone was there and talking in the lounge room.”
The team behind Grilled Cheesus charged money in order to cover the cost of supplies.
“We really weren’t making a profit. It was pretty much like breaking even — if we were lucky,” one founding member said.
On Sept. 25, the @tuftsgrilledcheesus account uploaded a post on Instagram to announce their transition to free grilled cheese events.
“We would like to clarify that rather than for financial gain, the intention of grilled cheesus has always been and will always be to bring together students in the Tufts community,” the post read.
According to the Grilled Cheesus team, this post was the result of an email they had received from Samma Fuller, Houston Hall’s Residential Life coordinator. The email, sent out to all Houston residents, stated that “While [the Residential Life staff] appreciate the community engagement this program has created, we want to remind you that this is a violation of the Tufts University License Agreement. Students are not permitted to conduct any business for profit in the residential halls, including the sale of food. We kindly ask that you discontinue this activity to avoid further policy violations.”
In a statement to the Daily, Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations, explained the reasoning behind this policy.
“The university prohibits the operation of businesses in dorm rooms and residence halls to protect student health and privacy and to respect state licensing laws requiring proper certifications prior to operating certain types of businesses,” Collins wrote.
Fuller explained in a statement to the Daily that the Residential Life staff was alerted about Grilled Cheesus through their social media presence. She stated that Residential Life staff encourage student-organized events in residence halls, as long as they follow university policy.
“Students should work with their [Residential Assistant] if they want to see specific programs in their residence hall. We encourage students who are interested in programming on their own to consult university policies before moving forward,” Fuller wrote.
Members of the Grilled Cheesus team were understanding of this response and opted to make their events free and less frequent.
“We really do rely on people’s generosity and donations to keep it going, but unfortunately, I think we’re gonna have to make it probably a once-a-month or maybe bi-weekly thing, just based off of our lack of funding,” one founding member said.
The founders said that they are interested in potentially becoming an official club to get funding, but until then, they will be paying for supplies out of pocket and relying on donations to continue hosting events. The group said they may start a GoFundMe campaign on their Instagram page to raise money for future events.
Another student-led food business, Tufts Crepes, hosted its first event on Sept. 9, where they sold crepes near Metcalf Hall.
“We’ll go ahead and usually sell close to 60 crepes. We sell out every single time. Customer feedback has been very good,” first-year Kai Kaplinsky, one of the co-founders of Tufts Crepes, said.
Kaplinsky, along with his business partner Elie Afflelou, said that they founded the project because they saw a market for more dessert options at Tufts dining halls.
According to Kaplinsky, the crepe project currently has a profit margin of 85%. Due to this success, the duo are looking to expand their team and business. According to Kaplinsky, they are hoping to expand their team by selling shares of the project for $300.
“I would say we’re looking for people to help us run so we can get more people involved,” Kaplinsky said.
The duo said that going forward, their goals are to improve their product and grow their audience. According to Kaplinsky, they have already signed with a local start-up company, have plans to sign deals with restaurants in Medford and are currently in talks with a French news company. Kaplinsky and Afflelou are also creating a marketing agency to help other students on campus advertise their businesses. The account for this agency can be found at @jumbo_reach on Instagram.
Afflelou and Kaplinsky also said they are currently in talks with administrators to get official certification from Tufts.
“The biggest thing we want [people] to know is we’re not just selling crepes. We’re here to hear what people want. We want to know exactly what they want, and we want to provide it to them,” Kaplinsky said. “So I want them to feel free to DM us. Any suggestions, concerns … we’re here to listen.”
