Portland State University's food cart pod, home to diverse eateries such as Asian Fusion, Home Taste, Khao Niew Lao Street Food, and Sheesh Shawarma, is at the precipice of closure. PSU officials have laid plans to cut ties with the pod by July 1, due to wastewater disposal issues and a lack of infrastructure linking to the city's sewer system.

In response to the pending shutdown, the affected vendors have rallied to raise the necessary funds to avoid displacement. Amid the fervor to preserve this slice of campus culture, Faisal Obeidi, the owner of Sheesh Shawarma and also a student at the university, expressed his concern. "As a business student here, I'm trying to thrive in my business. Slowly, I feel like they're trying to take that away from me," Obeidi said, in a statement obtained by KGW.

According to reports from Multnomah County, wastewater tanks are being phased out, and all future food cart pods must connect to the municipal sewer. "(Wastewater tanks) are starting to be phased out this year," Jeff Martin, the interim environmental health director with Multnomah County, was quoted in the Portland Business Journal. PSU vendors have been operating with a gray water tank, which is emptied multiple times per week by DEQ haulers.

Obeidi has taken proactive measures by starting a GoFundMe page, aiming to collect over $40,000 to allow the pod to remain in its current location, according to KGW. This move comes on the heels of the city's Bureau of Environmental Services issuing PSU a compliance order after grease and debris were illicitly disposed of into a planter and storm drain on-site. "We know the operators are not going to be able to connect to a city sewer tomorrow," explained Martin, emphasizing the gradual enforcement of these new standards and the intent to work with vendors.