Street food helps make Los Angeles a vibrant place and a great food city. It has the potential to play a vital role in our communities by providing access to good food—food that is healthy, sustainable, fair and affordable. Realizing the potential benefits of street food is challenging in Los Angeles, where vendors are currently unable to operate legally on sidewalks and food trucks encounter parking difficulties. As a result, many vendors are marginalized, and occupy a socioeconomically and legally precarious position. In turn, consumers in Los Angeles miss out on better access to good food and are denied the assurances of purchasing food from regulated businesses.
The Los Angeles Food Policy Council’s Street Food Committee is a coalition of public sector, non-profit, and private stakeholders who are passionate about cultivating good food on the city’s vibrant sidewalks and streets. Since its inception, the Street Food Committee has recognized that many of the city’s poorest communities have limited access to affordable, healthy food, and that within these same neighborhoods, street vendors with carts and trucks fill the void left by the absence of mainstream grocers within the community. Engaging and mobilizing street vendors to sell healthy food, while identifying a legal pathway for the selling of healthy food, can enhance this existing resource within the neighborhood food environment.
The priorities of the LAFPC Street Food Working Group include:
- Developing and promoting a set of nutritional guidelines that could be used by vendors to help make street food good food.
- Supporting “Good Street Food” vendors and events to (1) raise awareness in the community about healthy food and street vending, (2) gather and exchange information, (3) organize and train street food vendors, and (4) experiment and innovate.
- Supporting the creation of new street-food oriented markets in Boyle Heights and the Sixth Street corridor through brainstorming, connecting, and advocacy.
Co-Chairs: Rudy Espinoza, Gregg Kettles
image: Haan-Fawn Chau