The trade group representing D.C.’s food trucks is raising money so that its members can serve its customers materials about the District’s proposed regulations along with their lunches. The Food Truck Association of Metropolitan Washington launched a fundraising campaign today in order to finance a purchase of handbills, stickers, and other items to raise awareness of its opposition to the current draft of the proposed regulations over mobile food vending.
The Department of Regulatory and Consumer Affairs’ most recent version of the regulations—the fourth since Mayor Vince Gray first proposed rules governing food trucks in January 2012—proposes 23 “mobile vending zones” where trucks could park without having to feed a meter. But the location of the zones as well as the proposed lottery system by which food trucks would secure spots sparked resistance from the Food Truck Association, which represents about 100 businesses.
Now, the group wants to make sure its customers know its talking points ahead of the April 8 deadline for public comments and an April 30 D.C. Council hearing.
“We’re basically trying to pay for campaign materials,” says Che Ruddell-Tabisola, the association’s political director. “I think also to let people know about some of the benefits that food trucks provide.”
Ruddell-Tabisola says that the food truck industry employs about 400 people, and in a four-year span ending last year created an estimated $3.45 million in tax revenue for the city’s coffers.
“We’re fighting for our lives here,” he says. “If these food truck regulations go through, you will see food trucks close. We want everyone to know this is happening. There are real threats.”
Ruddell-Tabisola says the designs for the fliers and other handouts are sitting on his computer; the organization just needs the money for a print run. The materials will feature the map of DCRA’s proposed vending zones marked up with the Food Truck Association’s arguments against the current proposal.
“The comments we submitted last fall clearly said we do not oppose smart management of some locations,” Ruddell-Tabisola says.
Instead, he says the problem is a “one-size-fits-all” approach to many of the suggested vending zones. Ruddell-Tabisola notes the intersection of 21st Street and Virginia Avenue NW, by the State Department and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, a block with no brick-and-mortar restaurants and a fairly long walk to any decent food options. Under the proposed regulations, food trucks would be barred from the area. “There wil be 12 food trucks there today,” Ruddell-Tabisola says.
