Steven Gervais had a dream that one day, students would be able to have groceries delivered to their East Halls dorms without fretting over a ride to Wal-Mart.

So he put his dream into action and came up with an online grocery delivery service geared to freshmen with fewer than 28 credits, who aren't allowed to receive on-campus parking permits.

"We are trying to make it so it takes as little time as possible to get the groceries you need," Gervais (junior-accounting) said. "It's just a convenient choice for students."

While there are other on-campus options, such as Good2Go in East Halls, Gervais said the Web site, www.mothermargees.com, fits the college student budget.

"Many products [from campus stores] are marked up in price quite a bit," he said. "We feel like we have a lot of the products that students would take advantage of."

To order, students can choose from snacks, frozen foods and cleaning supplies, pay by credit card, then wait for a knock on the door for Mother Margees' Saturday deliveries.

The business went into action last Thursday, and with about 200 hits on the Web site, Gervais said he already had three deliveries last weekend.

But this isn't a lone endeavor. Gervais said his "new hobby" is a team effort, with three other Penn State students and co-owners -- Justin Kulikowski (junior-information sciences and technology), Nishan Williams (junior-marketing) and Jordan Langue (junior-information sciences and technology) -- who are working as the masterminds behind the Web site and marketing.

"Everyone is putting a lot of work into this," Gervais said. "And it will become well worth it when students use it and start benefiting from it."

Amanda Dryer (freshman-liberal arts) said that when she lived in Stone Hall in East last semester, a company like this would have been a big help.

"A few of my friends had older siblings with cars, but there was still an issue of grocery shopping and getting food," she said.

Dryer said that while buses were available to shuttle students down Atherton Street toward grocery stores, it was an inconvenience.

"The bus got to be expensive and really time-consuming," she said. "But if I couldn't get a ride, that's what I had to do."

Kerry Ensinger (freshman-photography) said she will probably take advantage of the service because planning around bus schedules is an annoying task.

"It works out in the long run because you wouldn't have to pay for bus fares back and forth," she said.

According to the Centre Area Transportation Authority Web site, buses heading toward Wal-Mart cost $1.25 each way. This would mean that if a student went grocery shopping once a week, by the end of one month, total costs for transportation would be $10.

Still, while the products from the group's Web site are at grocery store prices, there is a small service fee included to cover costs of the Web site and transportation to stores, Williams said.

For the first $20 charged, a flat fee of $4 is added. For every additional $20, an extra dollar is added to the total.

Currently, Gervais said the Mother Margees co-owners are limiting the service to East Halls, but in the future, there could be an expansion.

"We just wanted to start small, to really learn how our delivery process works before we try to grow to the rest of campus," he said.

And for those dying to know why the team calls the business Mother Margees, Williams said it's so students can get a sense of home.

"It's mothers delivering to students, not us," he said. "It's local moms."