Website Offers Students Free Food

by Monica Frost
The BG News (Bowling Green State U.)

(U-WIRE) BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Campusfood.com, an online ordering service, is teaming up with local restaurants near Bowling Green State University to give students an offer they can't refuse: free food. From now until Nov. 9, students have the opportunity to order a free small cheese pizza from Papa John's Pizza, a medium cheese pizza from Domino's Pizza or a hot sub from Pisanello's Pizza. The promotion is valid for one free order per customer and delivery is free at these locations as well.

Students can order their free food by visiting the Web site, creating a personal account and entering address information for delivery purposes.

Campusfood.com contacted local restaurants prior to the semester in hopes of generating more users and getting more exposure, according to Rod Stringer, a manager at Domino's for 20 years.

Although these select restaurants will spend the next two weeks giving away free food, they are getting their products out into the community.

"We're getting a lot of new customers out of this," Stringer said. "This is another way to order pizzas they [customers] can just go to the Web site. It is another convenience we offer our customers." Heather Taylor, a manager at Pisanello's Pizza for eight years, said this is the first promotion with "no strings attached."

Pisanello's gave away 20 free subs Monday, the first day of the promotion, and 54 subs yesterday.

Campusfood.com also has online ordering available for local restaurants King Buffet, Bamboo Garden and El Camino Real. Delivery is available for King Buffet, but Bamboo Garden and El Camino Real are pick-up only.

Campusfood.com, which is based in New York, was founded in 1997 by Michael Saunders, then a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Saunders was looking to create an alternative to the inaccuracies and frustrations that may arise from placing food orders via the telephone, according to Ismael Archbold, a marketing coordinator for Campusfood.com.

"Orders get mixed up, addresses get mixed up and menus go out of date," Archbold said in a phone interview, "but online most of these hassles are eliminated. We [Campusfood.com] try to make ordering simple and straightforward."

"We want people to try out the restaurants and try out the Web site," Archbold said. Archbold repeated a saying from his mother that has stuck with him: "If you want people to remember you in their busy life - give them an unexpected gift. Our unexpected gift is food," Archbold said.