A recent viral post from local account @mydaviscalifornia popularized the on-campus anomaly
By RACHEL GAUER — features@theaggie.org
“What is a food hole?” — that’s the opening title phrase that captured audience attention on a recent video published by the local Instagram account, @mydaviscalifornia. The account, which showcases Davis restaurants, spots and other unique details the city has to offer, posted the video across its social media pages on Dec. 28, 2024.
The Instagram reel currently has 2.2 million views and follows one of the account’s co-owners, Gray Eby, discovering the anomaly, located near Mrak Hall on campus. Eby is seen uncovering the green “food” lid — revealing just a few candy canes, a small bottle of water and a single orange — and then refilling its stocks with packs of various candies.
The inspiration for creating the video came from a Reddit post that had begun to grow traction as a user had posted they had refilled the hole. The original post, published two months ago, shows a user having replenished the food and has received over 800 upvotes. Having not heard of the food hole prior to the post, the account’s co-owners, Eby and Richard Jia, felt an immediate desire to discover the peculiarity.
“We were both out of town for the holidays, but somebody had put on Reddit that it was restocked,” Eby said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, the day I get back I’m going there and making a video.’”
The video took off almost immediately on their various social media accounts, gaining around 200,000 views in the first 24 hours on Instagram.
Eby commented on one of the reasons why he thinks the video particularly caught attention.
“One of the strange things that I think helped propel the video was that it was called a ‘food hole,’ but I filled it with candy,” Eby said. “So there were so many comments that said, ‘That’s not food’ and ‘Put real food.’ The perfect imperfection of a food hole filled with candy stirred enough people to catch the algorithm’s attention.”
Many of the comments under the post complain that the items Eby put into the hole are “junk” and lack nutritional value. However, many comments also reveal that many students and community members had never seen or heard of the on-campus hidden gem.
Jia, a UC Davis alum and a co-owner of @mydaviscalifornia, emphasized the peculiarity of the installation in its relation to the city of Davis.
“Not a lot of places in the world have a hole that is filled with fun food,” Jia said. “It’s definitely unique — it’s very, very Davis.”
Claudia Loomis, a first-year Ph.D. candidate in the political science program, first heard of the food hole in September through Reddit and named it a goal of hers to find the hole.
“It’s such an odd thing — from the concept to the name, ‘food hole,’” Loomis said via email. “It just felt like such a good bit.”
It wasn’t until @mydaviscalifornia posted their discovery of it that she went to seek out the hole herself. To her disappointment, the hole was found in a state of disarray.
“On Dec. 30, my partner and I went to walk around the Arboretum and campus and I remember[ed] seeing the video from the mydaviscalifornia account,” Loomis said. “I recognized the location so we backtracked to find the food hole. When we did, the container in it was cracked with water inside it.”
Loomis noted that since it strives to be a fun, peculiar installation on campus as opposed to a primary food source for the hungry, it’s important to note that alternatives for safe and fresh food can be found on campus or around Davis, such as the Freedges around Davis that provide free food donations for those in need. Other on-campus resources include the ASUCD Pantry, which aims to resolve food insecurity in the community, as well as the Aggie Eats program, a food truck which hosts a “pay-what-you-want” system; Both programs are available to all UC Davis students.
Despite its recent popularity, the hole has existed for quite longer than just a few months. Artist and UC Davis alum Paul Taylor originally installed the food hole as an art “intervention” during his time as a student, according to his website.
The food hole on campus is part of an ongoing effort to create art out of everyday infrastructure that normally escapes our attention, according to his website.
“The context of these bits of infrastructure becomes a part of the pieces themselves, and often they evade detection through a form of camouflage, by looking like they belong,” the website reads.
Taylor did not respond for a comment for The California Aggie, but he has been active on Reddit threads encouraging progress on fixing the hole’s lid — which recently broke but was fixed, according to a post on the platform.
For readers who want to discover this peculiar installment for themselves, the food hole is located between Shields Library and Mrak Hall and, to the naked eye, appears to be any other sewer hole aside from its label that simply reads “food.”
Written by: Rachel Gauer — features@theaggie.org
