MANTECA, Calif. — Seemingly overnight, the end of Poplar Street in Manteca began playing host to large crowds and food trucks. It's all part of a new food truck pilot program rolled out by the city of Manteca.
“It kind of seems like it happened overnight, but it’s definitely a long time coming,” said Chris McConnell, owner of food truck scheduling business Concierge Culture.
Loaded fries, chicken adobo, and funnel cakes have been getting slung out to happy customers at Library Park for weeks as part of the pilot program. For an Oct. 21 event, the program actually upped the ante with a live band, beer garden, games, and a line-up of six to eight trucks.
“People are starting to learn it’s not just taco trucks here,” said McConnell.
McConnell, a native Mantecan, helps manage the food trucks for the program along with the city of Manteca. His business makes him a go-between for food trucks in the area and helps bring vendors into the park.
The city council pushed for the pilot program roughly a year ago, and city staff jumped on the opportunity to bring the project to fruition.
“It’s something that they really wanted to offer to our community,” said Toni Lundgren, parks and recreation deputy director for Manteca.
The program boils down to a $10-a-day permit for trucks to line up at a city-sponsored location. For now, that spot is at the end of Poplar Street. From there, they'll see whether there's a demand from people for food trucks and demand for the trucks themselves to come to Manteca.
“We don’t have set hours," said Lundgren. "We’re open to work with the food vendors... they can come in and pick a day, or they can come in for a week.”
Given how new the program is, the pilot itself is serving as a bridge to see how it is received by people in the city.
Some critics of food trucks say they can be prone to messes and can take away from brick and mortar businesses, but, so far, the city hasn't fielded any of those complaints, according to Lundgren.
"Everyone's been really great to work with," she said.
“Some of the trucks are local trucks. The people live in our community, so they take a lot of pride in serving our residents, which is really awesome,” Lundgren added.
As the program moves forward, Lundgren is aiming to iron out some out of the wrinkles in the program. One of the bigger issues she's tackling is consistency for marketing, such as knowing who and how many people will actually show up.
The permit process helps the city regulate the variety of trucks and gives them an idea of who's going to be there, but any number of things can go wrong on a food truck. Ultimately, those issues can stop them from making an appearance.
“Having a set schedule doesn’t always work that way," said Lundgren. "That’s one of the things I’m trying to figure out how to better improve.”
As far as the variety of the food trucks, Lundgren says anyone can put in a request for certain foods or for trucks to join the program. She encourages people to visit the city of Manteca website or call the Parks and Recreation Department directly.
“I think... the biggest thing about it is we’re really trying to be flexible and get this to take off,” Lundgren said.
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