How would you like to open your own mobile food truck business in Sacramento? Your first step would be to learn all you can about Sacramento's ordinances. You'll have to move your food truck every half hour.
In Sacramento and nationally, owning a food truck recently has become a huge culinary trend. You have food trucks serving waffles, chicken with ethnic side dishes and condiments, and various ethnic food. For example, last summer The Food Network presented "The Great Food Truck Race" which at least got 2 million people to view the network.
Let's look at Sacramento's strict city ordinances about food trucks. The law notes that there's a 30-minute limit before food trucks must move another 400 feet. And there's lots of paperwork to file. If you want to open your own food truck, you need a health permit. You apply for a health permit from Sacramento County.
If you do get your permit, it would be great if you parked far away from local restaurants. There are businesses you can park nearer to where the people coming out of their offices, meetings, churches, schools, or medical centers are in need of food, and there may not be anyplace close where they can have lunch.
If you're interested in looking at mobile food trucks in Sacramento that are just debuting, check out the website of Mini Burger and come to the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Winter Wine & Food Festival on January 29, 2011, which will take place at the Sacramento Convention Center, downtown (located at J Street near 13th Street, Sacramento.
Mini Burger, Sacramento's newest and first mobile food truck will debut at the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Winter Wine & Food Festival. Check out the January 8, 2011 Sacramento Bee article by Chris Macias, "Burger truck to debut this month." According to the Sacramento Bee article, "Sacramento's first gourmet food truck will be rolling through town starting Jan. 29, 2011. Mini Burger will serve gourmet burgers and fries through its mobile truck, the Sacramento Bee article noted. According to the article, locals "have been craving gourmet food trucks."
Do you see a continuum of fast food menu faire in Sacramento? We already have a fast food eatery almost on every corner along some streets such as Watt Avenue and some areas along Marconi Avenue, for example. So now Sacramento will have a gourmet burger truck. But how does a gourmet burger differ from a fast food burger unless one of the gourmet burgers is a veggie or fish burger made without salty textured vegetable protein which you can buy frozen in supermarkets?
Of course, the gourmet burger will be different. According to the Sacramento Bee, the food truck will be, "modeling Mini Burger after Kogi BBQ, a Southern California food truck that's been featured in Bon Appetit magazine and tweets its location to more than 79,000 followers."
So, don't knock it until you've tasted it. Maybe the gourmet burger will be excellent. But as a vegan, the idea of a burger not made from ground lentils and brown rice with oats is strange. Fortunately, the majority of Sacramentans do eat burgers. And I'm guessing the taste will be excellent. So I'm highly recommending the Mini Burger.
According to the Sacramento Bee article, "like Kogi BBQ, Mini Burger will use both social media and its website to update its location. Mini Burger will feature a menu of burgers such as the "cow town" and a "ninja" burger with Asian slaw and sriracha aioli. A two-pack of burgers costs $6, or three for $8, while sides cost $2 each."
Now the Asian slaw and sriracha aioli sounds delicious. Yes. More Asian slaw is what Sacramentans may want to balance the meat with the vegetables.
According to the Sacramento Bee article, Mini Burger's "business plan projects for a minimum of 100 customers daily with a $1,000 gross, and calls for service throughout the city limits, including midtown and north Sacramento. Successful gourmet food trucks can gross upward of $400,000 annually."
Now, will somebody bring a gourmet veggie and/or fish burger food truck to the Arden Arcade area? Why? It's filled with many senior citizens, and in some areas a church on almost every corner, with people gathering on weekends in need of healthy food in areas where there are not enough restaurants and eateries serving gourmet food. There has to be some alternative in Sacramento to the overly-salted fast food eateries you see from the familiar chain restaurants.
Let's look at what's within a block or two of Eastern and Marconi Avenues, for example. Now, with all the homes and apartments and several churches within walking distance, people do gather. But what do you find? The same familiar Kentucky fried chicken, Panda, McDonalds, Togo's and Carl's all within a few blocks walking distance from Eastern and Marconi.
What's on those blocks? Rows of apartments and private homes, many owned by seniors. And you have the many churches within a few blocks with people pouring out on weekends. You also have dozens of dental offices. A lot of people like to eat after they have their cleaning and exam. But why always the same, familiar fast-food eateries? How about some gourmet food trucks there?
Sacramento needs more gourmet food trucks. Who will do a market research test to see whether there are enough people interested in eating organic vegetarian and/or raw/dehydrated food from mobile food trucks? Or is there a market for mobile seafood trucks serving wild-caught fish instead of more burgers and barbeque eateries? Do people working in Sacramento's growing healthcare industry choose healthy foods or burgers and fries when they eat lunch from a food truck, perhaps parked near their place of work?
Did anyone do a market research survey to find out whether tastes are steady with burgers and fries as a first choice or changing to more variety with vegetarian or organic food selections? There isn't enough, if any mobile trucks serving soup and salad choices for vegetarians who want a lunch from a mobile food truck of warm soup (without excess salt added), a healthy, hearty, and tasty salad, and a side of crusty whole-sprouted grain or legume bread, flat bread with spread, or crackers and a piece of whole fruit for dessert. How about a veggie 'tuna' sandwich made from various nut pastes?
Or wouldn't Sacramento consumers enjoy a burrito bowl of colorful beans, cilantro, tomato, cabbage, hominy, spinach, kale, carrots, and a tasty, but healthy dressing--perhaps of lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil? Or perhaps feta goat cheese and olives with tomato or roasted red bell peppers on whole grain or gluten-free flat bread made from lentil flour? Will Sacramento ever see mobile food trucks serving that kind of food?
Another need in Sacramento is for mobile food trucks to provide meals at senior centers, clubs, houses of worship social halls, or community parks where people gather who are interested in organic, natural whole foods, including food trucks serving raw foods, produce prepared as meals (other than at health-related conventions.). But what does Sacramento get? Burger trucks. Okay, gourmet, tasty, delicious burgers.
Where are the vegetarian food trucks that serve Sacramento's increasing "over age 70" population gathering daily at the many senior centers, parks, and life-long education centers in Sacramento? Arden Arcade, for example, has dozens of senior apartments, some next to Kaiser Hospital on Morse Avenue.
This area could use a great gourmet food truck. If not only for the outpatients, but also for the personnel working in the hospital and surrounding offices. How about a food truck with soups and salads?
Or why not feature a gourmet sandwich truck in areas where there are hundreds of workers in the healthcare industries in Sacramento? Have you ever tasted hospital cafeteria food? A gourmet food truck would probably find a following, if a marketing survey were done to see whether the need is there.
Now, we have a new gourmet food truck serving gourmet burgers and gourmet fries. How about something healthier--gourmet veggie burgers on sprouted whole grain flatbreads? Or the type of salads such as cabbage and black sesame seeds that you sometimes may find in the deli section of Sacramento's Whole Foods Market?
If you're going to go organic, how about one food truck in Sacramento that serves a variety of salad pickings and sandwiches similar to the wide variety you get at Fresh Choice or the Sacramento Natural Food Co-op? Or at the various vegan and raw food restaurants you see in Sacramento?
If you're catering to the lunch crowd with a mobile food truck, there has to be more of a choice than gourmet burgers and gourmet fries....unless the gourmet burgers are made with food other than ground beef--such as salmon burgers and chives, veggie burgers without textured vegetable protein loaded with salt, or other ingredients similar to what you find in the frozen food sections of Sacramento markets?
Are Sacramentans tired of burgers and fries? Or are Sacramentans addicted to burgers and fries as the quick swallow leading to acid reflux for those over a certain age? But to look on the sunny side, it's gourmet time for burgers and fries. So if it's gourmet, it has to be delicious.
Folks, we also need variety other than burgers and fries or chicken and fried noodles. How about some ethnic gourmet food for Sacramento from food trucks? Lines are long at food trucks because the food tastes good.
Who is Fighting Hunger in Sacramento with Grants?
Walmart is fighting hunger in Sacramento. You'll notice a few months ago Walmart in Sacramento in the Arden-Arcade area has stocked the first floor of their store on El Camino Avenue near Watt Avenue with a large area of food and produce, but not much organic produce. In fact, last time we looked, the bag of organic oranges there had some moldy oranges in it, whereas the oranges that were not organic were in great shape.
If you overlook the lack of organic produce in Walmart here, the Walmart Foundation is fighting hunger. Check out the December 15, 2010 Sacramento Business Journal article by Kelly Johnson,"Walmart awards grants to fight hunger."
The Walmart Foundation has awarded $325,000 in grants and two refrigerated food delivery trucks to organizations that fight hunger in this region and elsewhere in Northern California.
Placer Food Bank, a food clearinghouse that supports 55 charitable agencies throughout Placer, El Dorado and Nevada counties, received one of the refrigerated trucks.
California Emergency Foodlink, a Sacramento organization that provides food to smaller food banks and is the nation's largest food bank, received $200,000 of the total gift. California Emergency Foodlink, Sacramento County's Official Food Bank, was founded in 1992 with the mission of finding sensible solutions to hunger that effectively address its root causes: poverty and joblessness. To accomplish its mission, Foodlink has implemented a mission strategy of building better communities by providing jobs, preventing hunger and training for the future.
At no charge to recipient agencies, Foodlink delivers more than 120 million pounds of food per year throughout California. Foodlink delivers government commodities from The Emergency Food Assistance Program ( TEFAP ) as well as fresh produce collected under the statewide agricultural food rescue program, Donate-Don't Dump ( DDD ).
Tell restaurants to donate and not to dump. See the website, Tell Restaurants and Markets: Donate, Don't Dump, Usable Excess Food. Through innovative programming and an intense desire to create change, Foodlink has been fighting hunger in California for nearly two decades. See the website, California Emergency Food Link in Sacramento, CA.
Did you know that the California Association of Food Banks, which is based in Oakland, received $100,000? The Second Harvest Food Bank of San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties received $25,000 and one of the refrigerated food delivery trucks. That's one step more to fighting hunger. It's good to become involved in volunteering with various food banks if you live in Sacramento.
If you look at various neighborhoods, you can readily see that some people in Sacramento just don't know where they will find their next meal to feed their families or themselves. At least Walmart is a leader in the commitment to eliminating hunger and improving food security.
Walmart's money grants do help provide food to people who are hungry. And another benefit is the job training for numerous unemployed people in Sacramento who need that steady paycheck to survive.
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