“By college students, for college students,” is how Carla Velarde, Editorial Director of Spoon SLU, describes the food trend and resource website, Spoon University. Mackenzie Barth and Sarah Adler, Northwestern students, launched the website in March 2014. The pair created the website with a simple goal in mind: to make a website catered to college students to find recipes, restaurant reviews and fun food-related content in creative and engaging ways.
Their brilliant idea quickly caught on, and Spoon websites began popping up at college campuses around the country. Velarde and Community Manager Colleen Daly, both nutrition majors, helped launch SLU’s very own Spoon branch. To get started, Daly and Velarde had to get a petition with 500 signatures from students saying they would benefit from a SLU branch of Spoon. Clearly, there was a desire for a creative food site, because Daly and Velarde got the required signatures in short order and were able to launch Spoon SLU in April 2015.
Now, Spoon SLU is one of the more than one hundred Spoon University websites. Just over a year old, Spoon SLU has successfully been able to reach the foodies of SLU. They publish a wide array of stories, from quirky and hilarious articles like “7 Beers for Anyone Who Hates the Taste of Beer” and “The 21 Stages of Going Out in College, as Told by Ron Swanson”, to helpful health and lifestyle articles like “Why Cage-Free Eggs Aren’t Exactly What They Seem” and “The Non-Obvious Reasons You Should Eat More Avocados, According to Science.” And of course, they cater to SLU students specifically, with amusing articles like “How to Survive Mardi Gras 101” and “The 10 Stages of Pickleman’s After a Night out at SLU.”
The Spoon SLU team knows their audience well and wants to make their stories enjoyable for students, understanding how many hours students already spend with their heads in textbooks. Daly says: “We have stuff that you should be aware of, what’s going on with your food, and we make it interesting to read for college students.”
Another trend that Spoon SLU has picked up is creating short videos of new and tasty recipes. Social media manager and videographer Emma Lally is in charge of creating two videos a month. She gets to choose a simple recipe provided by Spoon University and then makes the video herself. Although the videos are usually no longer than a minute, it takes quite a bit of work to get the perfect shots, Lally says. “My favorite part about making videos is seeing content that I’ve worked really hard on get such amazing feedback from the Spoon audience. Spoon has such a large following on Facebook that our videos have the potential to reach millions of people throughout the world.” Her latest video, “Oreo Pull-Apart Bread,” was posted on the Spoon University Facebook page and now has almost eight million views.
Those Facebook views are well deserved. Spoon SLU knows how to be successful on social media. Their Instagram is close to reaching 1,600 followers. They post eye-catching pictures featuring the best eats around St. Louis that will make your mouth water.
Whether it’s through their articles, videos or Instagram posts, Spoon SLU has made a name for themselves on our campus as the go-to source for the most entertaining and informative food-related content. Be sure to keep up with Spoon SLU as they continue to grow their website and fuel our “hangry” moods at slu.spoonuniversity.com.
