UNC senior’s pupusería on wheels saves up for scholarships

UNC’s sixth annual Hispanic Heritage Month celebration kicked off in the Pit on Tuesday with free pupusas catered by So Good Pupusas, a business co-founded by senior Cecilia Polanco.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., students had the chance to sample handmade pupusas, a popular type of thick tortillas from El Salvador.

Polanco said she got the idea for So Good Pupusas, which will operate as a food truck, from eating the meals as a child at home and sharing them with friends as part of her Salvadorian culture. She said her food truck aims to show more people this aspect of her identity.

Senior Alicia Chen said So Good Pupusas is an example of how students can get more involved in personal projects.

“You know, as college students, learning or becoming professionals is not all we have to do,” she said. “This is also an option.”

Using profits from selling pupusas and other fundraising events, Polanco aims to create scholarships for undocumented students at UNC. She hopes to create two renewable $1,000 scholarships each year, beginning this spring.

In North Carolina, undocumented students have to pay out-of-state tuition and are considered nonresident aliens, Polanco said. They do not qualify for any state or federal funding.

Polanco said she knows many undocumented students who struggle to pay tuition at UNC.

“Their financially being able to pay for college is a huge barrier,” she said. “It makes getting an education so much harder.”

While the So Good Pupusas scholarships don’t cover full tuition, they can help undocumented students pay for college, Polanco said.

As of Tuesday, So Good Pupusas is still waiting to get permits and certifications to fully operate in the Triangle. Polanco said the truck itself is being painted and will be stationed on UNC’s campus once it receives the status of an official UNC vendor.

Graduate student Joshua Olsen, who was eating a pupusa in the Pit on Tuesday, said he would buy food from the truck in the future.

“That’s really cool because you don’t get to see a lot of food that is not from this region,” Olsen said.

So Good Pupusas plans to start operating as an open food truck next month, said junior Joseph Sullivan, an intern at So Good Pupusas. This means organizations can rent the truck in advance and have it cater events on specific days.

Chen said she had heard a lot about the food truck’s work around campus.

“I would be more likely to like buy their pupusas than any other food truck’s because they are getting very involved in the campus community,” she said.

university@dailytarheel.com