Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity, a dot-com company, and local restaurants have combined forces to bring online ordering and free food to Penn State students.

Campusfood.com, Inc., a New York City-based business, is a new venture that allows students to order food online through an independent Web site, said Michael Saunders, president and founder of the company.

When a student orders delivery from Campusfood.com, an electronic order is sent to the New York City office, where customer service agents review the orders, Saunder said. An automatic fax system then forwards the orders to the appropriate restaurants, he said.

Campusfood.com began working with several area restaurants on Monday.

Mike and Dave's Pizza and Sub, 421 E. Beaver Ave., began considering the online ordering method several weeks ago to try to draw new business, manager Amanda Isenberg said.

"All the faxes are [from] new customers, I think," Isenberg said. "So I guess it's working."

As part of the joint effort, Campusfood.com is offering free food with orders exceeding $4 for a two-week period, Saunders said. Each restaurant determines its own free food offers, he added.

After the two weeks, Campusfood.com will still be available to Penn State students, but without the freebies, Saunders said. The company is looking to add restaurants to its site, he said.

The Web site follows a local trend that has students ordering food online. Recently, students have been able to use Lion Cash to pay for takeout and some deliveries, as well as surfing LionMenus.com for a listing of several local restaurants' menus.

Perry Katz (senior-operations and information systems management) has been working for Mike and Dave's since the beginning of last summer.

He said management introduced the online program to workers at a meeting on Monday. The program, he said, was supposed to draw 600 new customers in two weeks.

The restaurants pay a marketing fee to Campusfood.com for advertising, he said.

Campusfood.com caters to students at 200 colleges and universities across the country, focusing on the eastern seaboard, Saunders said.

Alpha Kappa Psi is promoting Campusfood.com as a fundraiser for the organization, doing local legwork for the company, Saunders said.

The program is a way to order food without walking to restaurants or risking being put on hold on the phone, James Chang, Alpha Kappa Psi fundraising chair, said. The draw is the convenience of ordering online, as well as the free food, he said.

The money Alpha Kappa Psi raises will be used for donations to the Interfraternity Council /Panhellenic Dance Marathon, among other uses, Chang said.