Eric Seeds takes the concept of meals on wheels to a whole new level. For the past 27 years, students have been able to order a hot breakfast or lunch, right off a truck.

Seeds has been the owner of Derald’s Catering for the past 10 years, when he took over the business from his uncle. Since then, he has expanded from the original location of the truck on Matthews Avenue near the Union, to Derald’s Café in the law building and now to Derald’s Diner, which will be opening in the next couple of weeks on First and Green Streets.

For his latest endeavor, Seeds bought the location of Ye Olde Donut Shop, since Green Street is a “hot spot” on campus. He is currently in the process of turning the space into a chrome black-and-white diner.

The diner will be open from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m. Having the same menu as the truck, the diner will sell its specialty breakfast sandwiches through the night, which Seeds hopes will draw the nightlife crowd after the campus bars close.

“There is something weird about being sober on campus when everyone else is hammered,” Seeds said.

Seeds, however, will most likely hire people to run the diner and he will stay on the truck. Running the truck, Seeds said, is a lot harder than most people think.

With below freezing temperatures in the winter and heat waves over 100 degrees in the summer, the extreme work environments of the truck are less than desirable.

“It’s a big metal box; it gets hot,” said employee and Champaign resident Patrick Monaghan.

Plus, the work day for Seeds is more than 12 hours long, since he has to drive the truck to and from a warehouse everyday to pack and unpack the food on it.

Despite the difficulties of running Derald’s, Seeds is proud of the expansions he’s made to the business.

While business is good on the truck, as Seeds finds the location near the quad and medical school to be ideal, there are some downsides to working on a college campus.

Seeds is constantly having to get a new crop of loyal customers, as students are usually on a four year cycle. Students can be intimidated by the truck if they don’t know what it is, Seeds said.

Also, the summer months can get slow when 40,000 students leave. However, faculty, grad students and construction workers are what keep business going during the slower months.

Post doctorate Jeff Lozier is an example of this, as he just has to go right outside of his office in Morrill Hall for his snack truck fix. Lozier only goes to the truck on Fridays for the specialty fish sandwich.

“Fried fish sandwiches are awesome,” Lozier said.

Seeds only serves the fish on Fridays, and sees an extreme increase in the number of people coming to the truck on that day. So much so, that he had to hire more people inside the truck. He describes the fish Fridays as “kind of like a cult.”

“Come by here on Friday and it looks like Quad Day,” Seeds said.

Seeds and his wife have continued the business that his uncle Derald established almost 30 years ago and look forward to the new expansion.