There’s been a strange silence filling up the night air on weekends, taking up the space that was once occupied by a staple of the Elizabethtown College campus community—the Jay Truck.

“It’s disappointing at best,” senior finance major Scott Walters said. “I really miss it. The food’s pretty good, and it’s nice to just have a midnight snack.”

While students can still get some of their favorite foods from Jay’s Nest, like Walters’ favorite, chicken tenders, he pointed out that the Jay’s Truck’s impact is more than culinary. “There’s a big social aspect, because campus is pretty dead over the weekend, and Jay Truck brings everyone out,” he said. “It’s just the magic of it. It’s probably the same chicken tenders as Jay’s Nest, but it’s the way they’re made and the fact that it’s late at night.”

Etown students have a passion for the food truck that formerly resided between the Baugher Student Center (BSC) and the Bower’s Center for Sports, Fitness and Well-being. Now, it sits dormant, parked in a spot at the back of the BSC.

Sophomore English professional writing major Kirsten Dorsey approaches the issue from two separate standpoints—she’s a Dining Services worker but isn’t immune to the Jay Truck’s allure. “I remember specifically last fall semester, I would get off of work at 10 p.m., and an hour later, I would get to the truck just to hang out and get stuff,” Dorsey said. “I love the Jay Truck like everyone else. It’s a good place to find people.”

While she misses Jay Truck, Dorsey has context for its disappearance that other students don’t. The answer is actually simple. “Simply put, we don’t have enough people to work it,” she said. The Jay Truck needs two student workers and one full-time worker to supervise its running. The student workers aren’t the issue—while Dining Services does have more than 100 student positions open, Dorsey believes that they could find staff for the Jay Truck. The main problem lies in the lack of full-time workers.

“The supervisor we had in the fall of last year is no longer employed, which is why the schedule was shaky last semester,” Dorsey said. “This semester and last semester, the two full-timers we had didn’t want to do it, and you can’t force people to come in until two in the morning. They have lives.”

The issue is simple. No workers, no Jay Truck. The problem is, there are no full-time workers in the foreseeable future. “For full-timers, it’s a rough job,” Dorsey said. “You’re in charge of students, which creates imbalances because they can miss work for class, but a full-timer has a much harder time getting off.”

Student workers have leeway that full-time workers don’t, but their job isn’t easy either. “Dining Services provides the most hours, but it’s low-paying,” Dorsey said. “It’s well-known that you can work at McDonald’s down the road for $15 an hour.”

For Dorsey however, the job is worth it. “At first I just wanted spending money in my pocket, and when I got there, I realized how much I enjoyed it,” she said. “I really like cooking and I like the environment.”

Dorsey works in the Jay’s Nest, where she enjoys being on the grill, especially during rushes. After work on weekends though, she now returns to her dorm, instead of journeying to Jay Truck. While she, and every other student, misses the Jay Truck, Dorsey pointed out that there’s really no specific person to blame. “It’s not a conspiracy, it’s not anything deep, we just don’t have the full-timers for it,” she said.

Director of Dining Services Eric Turzai did not respond to the email request for comment.