Street Food Vendors

New York City’s foodies love street food vendors. Mobiles of culinary delight can be found in every borough, serving every type of food. Food trucks not only satisfy your hunger pangs, they can introduce you to a new cultural experience or rekindle memories of past adventures. However, food trucks and food carts are about much more than gastronomy.

For me, they are about the people who invent them, outfit them, and work them. Their operation requires commitment and a passion for the life, because the life is hard. Street food vendors are usually up before dawn with vehicles in place as the sun rises. Others do business well into the night. After a full shift of prepping, cooking and serving, vendors must return to their commissaries to clean equipment and get ready for the next day’s business - rain or shine. On top of everything, they need to navigate a morass of City regulations as, notwithstanding their positive economic contributions, the City’s bureaucracy remains hostile to their livelihood. Vendors work together to ease these challenges, sharing information and solving common problems.

So why do it? Because these racially and ethnically diverse bootstrap entrepreneurs believe their businesses will allow them to achieve their dreams, no matter the work and frustrations. Vendors' aspirations are as varied as their backgrounds. Traditionally operated by new immigrants to support their families, food trucks are also manned by displaced office workers; ambitious chefs perfecting their craft without the burden of restaurant overhead; or retirees pursuing a second career. Vendors not only work to put food on the table, they work to send their kids to college, be their own boss, and/or spend more time with family and friends. One organization uses their food trucks to build skills and provide work experience to youths exiting from the criminal justice system. Everyone’s common goal is to build a sustainable future and become their dream.