Web site offers variety of discount delivery options

Sophomore Courtney Thom now has more alternatives when she wants to eat healthy but doesn't want to leave her house. Www.campusfood.com allows students to order takeout from other Bloomington restaurants besides the usual sandwich and pizza places.\n"I think it's amazing because all I knew of for delivery was Pizza Express or Jimmy John's," Thom said. "It gives me another option other than pizza if I want to eat healthy." \nThom currently does not have a car, which makes it difficult for her to get to places to pick up meals, but the simple online order service that Campus Food provides solves her problem. \nThe restaurants on the program have delivery service, but this is a way for them to compete with other services in town. Ilise Rose , a marketing assistant for Campus Food, wants the service to be an alternative to campus food for students. \n"We want to serve all students, both on and off campus," Rose said. "With a few clicks and no telephone busy signals, students can have dinner delivered to them."\nCollins resident sophomore Rachel Ellison is looking forward to the service.\n"It's pretty cool not having to eat dorm food," Ellison said. "I'll definitely use it; plus it will be good for area business because students order food like crazy."\nSome restaurants only deliver to campus locations, but many others deliver all over town. Once on the Web site, the customer need only pick their state and their campus to see what restaurants are available. Campus Food was founded in 1997 by Michel Saunders, a University of Pennsylvania student who wanted better access to area food. From there, the company has grown to include over 1,000 restaurants at 300 schools.\n"It takes only a few minutes to register and is free," Rose said.\nFor the first two weeks of business, the different restaurants working with the service are offering a free food item to each student ordering. The official launch of www.campusfood.com is Sept. 14. \n"The biggest draw is that we have specials," Rose said. " We work with the restaurants to provide a different deal for students so that the menus are constantly changing. We have different things for different days of the week, like an 'O.C.' special and a football special." \nIn the future, www.campusfood.com hopes to branch out to other restaurants where students would ordinarily have to drive. \n-- Contact staff writer Cecelia Wolford at cwolford@indiana.edu.