Besides beer, parties and co-ed dorms, what do college students love the most?
Free food!
With that timeless truth in mind, Steve St. Germain, of Oxford, created a unique website through which his fellow Oakland University students can obtain up-to-date information about campus events at which free food will be served.
It’s called www.FreeFoodatOU.com and it was officially launched on Aug. 29, answering the prayers of both budget-conscious students and moochers alike.
‘Basically, the website is kind of like an event listing where all the student organizations can post their meetings and events that have free food,? said St. Germain, a 2004 graduate of Lake Orion High School.
‘It’s another way for the student organizations to promote themselves and it’s a way for students to get free food and learn about different groups,? he explained. ‘It’s basically a win-win . . . Hopefully, the students will embrace it.?
Right now, the website is being supplied with event information by campus organizations and individual students.
But St. Germain, who’s a marketing major, indicated OU is very interested in his idea and beginning next year, the school could begin sending him the information directly.
‘If it becomes a success and if the students embrace it at OU, I’m looking into different ways to reach out and spread this idea to other schools regionally,? he said.
He got the idea for the website based on his own high-level of involvement at OU.
‘I’m at school a lot and I go to a lot of different events and almost all of them have free food. I realized a website like this could actually work,? said St. Germain, who’s president of OU’s chapter of the American Marketing Association and marketing director for the school’s newspaper The Oakland Post.
St. Germain developed the website as a side project while working as an intern this summer at Workfly, a Pontiac-based community/business incubator that provides support resources and physical space for start-up companies and entrepreneurs.
‘They’ve really been a big help to me as far as getting this project off the ground and motivating me,? he said.
Workfly hosted the website’s launch party over the weekend.