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Jax Truckies is embarking on a partnership with downtown restaurateur Gallery Restaurant Group, owners of Burrito Gallery, Uptown Market and El Gato Grande. The rally is designed to be a demonstration event that creates mutually beneficial partnerships with nearby restaurants and retailers. Not only do food trucks provide consumers with options and spur job creation by offering a cost-effective way to create a small business, but they also contribute to the vibrancy of the neighborhoods they serve.
“Having activities Downtown and creating opportunities to experience our Downtown has been a focus of Gallery Restaurant for nearly a decade. We are happy to support anything positive in the core. We also appreciate those who come Downtown and support our business, our retail neighbors, and producers whose events bring traffic to our emerging city center” says Paul Shockey of Gallery Restaurant Group.
Participants are asked to contribute a $1 donation to Second Harvest for the purchase of a wrist band allowing admission into the event. The mission of Second Harvest North Florida is to distribute food and grocery products to hungry people and to educate the public about the causes and possible solutions to problems of domestic hunger. 1 in 6 adults experience food insecurity each day in America and 1 in 4 children don’t know where their next meal will come from. Second Harvest provides food to more than 170,700 individuals annually – or an estimated 31,400 weekly. One dollar donated to Second Harvest generates seven meals, or the equivalent of two days of food for a person in need.
“Second Harvest welcomes the opportunity to create partnerships with fellow foodies like Jax Truckies,” said Kimberly Mariani, director of community engagement for Second Harvest North Florida. “These types of events are a fun and unique way to raise visibility about the hunger that exists across neighborhoods here in north Florida. We are collaborating with businesses, individuals, civic groups and other nonprofits to help distribute more meals to children, the elderly and working families in need.”
Food trucks have grown in popularity in other cities and are now one of thefastest growing businesses in the State of Florida according the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which regulates and licenses these small businesses.
“This is a one-day event to bring attention to Downtown and to familiarize others about how food trucks can contribute to the fabric of our community,” said organizer Mike Field. Adding, “These innovative entrepreneurs want to inject some flavor into Jacksonville’s neighborhoods, and downtown certainly needs the help. We’re so appreciative of Burrito Gallery’s commitment to our city and to be able to also raise money for such a worthy cause like Second Harvest only adds to the transformational nature of this event. With everyone’s help, we can stamp out hunger in North Florida”
For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/jaxtruckies or follow on Twitter @JaxTruckies
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fieldafm
May 23, 2012, 09:50:23 AMA lot of people angry today.
The good news is, a downtown restaurant sees the value in food trucks and agrees to host a benefit event for Second Harvest. Talk about win-win partnerships!
fsujax
May 23, 2012, 09:53:01 AMWho is angry?
thelakelander
May 23, 2012, 09:54:37 AMWho could be angry about supporting small business growth and vibrancy in downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods? Especially on privately owned property.
fieldafm
May 23, 2012, 10:05:25 AMI meant, everyone is focusing on bashing each other in other threads. Thought more people would be excited about the announcement.
cline
May 23, 2012, 10:08:46 AMI thought you meant people were bent about the fact that the food trucks were going to be at an event downtown. I'm looking forward to it.
thelakelander
May 23, 2012, 10:10:05 AMYes, following the live blog last night, it's been a circus.
fsujax
May 23, 2012, 10:13:12 AMah. I thought DVI or someone was upset.
CityLife
May 23, 2012, 10:14:04 AMGreat idea to partner with BG. Field, do you plan to show BG's sales on that day compared to a normal Saturday to show the viability of food trucks? I imagine their beer sales are going to be through the roof.
fieldafm
May 23, 2012, 10:19:20 AMI don't have any problems with DVI or anyone that wants to help downtown for that matter.
Bold City certainly had a healthy day despite a day marked by heavy rainfall. I'm sure Burrito Gallery and some surrounding businesses will also see the benefits... that's how this is designed.
Invite all of your friends, young and old alike!
Just think, if 1,000 people showed up... that would mean 7,000 meals could be provided to families in need throughout North Florida. Think about that impact for a moment....
Tacachale
May 23, 2012, 10:51:18 AMAwesome news, Field. Can't wait!
dougskiles
May 23, 2012, 11:05:44 AMWill any of the food truckies be at the stadium for the soccer game this Saturday night? Or close by? I am aching to try them out.
And I hope to attend on the 9th, too!
urbaknight
May 23, 2012, 11:28:19 AMThis is awsome! And it's a way to make fools out of those who oppose food trucks DT. Now if they still wish to be oppressive to this group of people, they're also opposing this worthy cause.
It's like that time San Fransisco tried to get rid of happy meals. McDonald's took a percentage of the cost and gave it to a children's charity.
TPC
May 23, 2012, 11:36:14 AMAwesome, I wanted to go to the last Food Truck event but it sold out. Now I'll get a chance to try some awesome food and support a good as well.
Food trucks at the stadium for the soccer match would be sweet.
Ajax
May 23, 2012, 12:46:32 PMKudos to Paul Shockey and Burrito Gallery for supporting this event.
I agree - food trucks around the stadium for the soccer game would be great. I know some of the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale food trucks are outside Ft. Lauderdale Strikers home games.
fieldafm
May 23, 2012, 12:51:35 PMBring the kids and their friends. We're having a really cool ice cream truck as well!
Levy(who is in charge of the majority of concessions in the stadium) actually has a food truck. They were at Everbank Field for the San Diego/Jags Monday night game. They left and spent some time in Miami and did quite well from what I heard.
Unfortunately, no food trucks at the stadium Friday night. There will be a beer truck though, courtesy of Intuition!
fieldafm
May 23, 2012, 04:01:37 PMNews is already making the rounds:
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/423471/gary-mills/2012-05-23/jacksonville-food-truck-rally-set-june-9-burrito-gallery
fieldafm
May 24, 2012, 07:24:38 AMLots of buzz going on downtown last night about the event. I invite you to share this with your friends as you don't want to be left out. There is an event page set up to share through the Jax Truckies Facebook page Facebook.com/JaxTruckies.
fieldafm
May 24, 2012, 01:53:08 PMThis:
Food truck rally downtown Columbus
is going to help this:
Second Harvest Food Bank
all in this setting:
fieldafm
May 29, 2012, 09:17:26 AMPassed out flyers at Jazz Fest this weekend. Amazing how many people either A) already knew about the event or B) face lit up when myself or Caron talked about it.
Downtown needs excitement.
thelakelander
May 29, 2012, 09:28:02 AMDefinitely looking forward to it.
fieldafm
May 30, 2012, 08:47:47 AMIf you haven't seen it posted on Facebook.com/JaxTruckies yet, we are giving away two tickets to Second Harvest's FOODFIGHT next Thursday at Everbank Field. If you share the Jax Truckies event page, one lucky randomly selected person will win this pair of tickets. These tickets go for $60 each! FOODFIGHT is Second Harvest's biggest fundraiser of the year and attendees get to sample foods from 50 area restaurants.
This is a really cool contest!
MissMinda
May 30, 2012, 06:00:32 PMI entered the giveaway. I don't have $120 for hubby and I, so I have my fingers crossed. I would love to attend.
fieldafm
May 31, 2012, 08:03:21 AMThanks MissMinda... hope to see you at the food truck rally for hunger next Saturday.
Please encourage all of your friends to go. If 1,000 people showed up, 7,000 meals could be provided to people in need.. not to mention activate a normally dead space of land in downtown on a Saturday while feeding some hungry foodies
Burrito Gallery will be opening their outside patio into the lot and opening an outside bar (similar to what was done at Jazz Fest) and we'll even have an ice cream truck... so the event will be both adult and kid friendly.
AND several vendors will have vegetarian options! There will be something for everyone.
tufsu1
May 31, 2012, 01:06:21 PMLooks like Sarasota is getting into food trucks now too!
http://ticketsarasota.com/2012-05-30/section/dining/mobile-munchies-the-food-truck-craze-cruises-into-sarasota/
Non-RedNeck Westsider
May 31, 2012, 01:08:43 PMAnd after loading up on some incredible food, having a few warm-up beverages and doing a good deed, you can head out to the beach for the Putt & Crawl!
fieldafm
May 31, 2012, 01:55:19 PMIn the past few weeks just in Florida alone Sarasota, St Petersburg and Miami Beach have all welcomed these exciting new micro-businesses into their towns.
thelakelander
May 31, 2012, 01:57:15 PMJust getting back from having lunch from Corner Taco. They basically sold out of everything at Everbank today. I may need to go on a diet after the rally next week.
thelakelander
May 31, 2012, 11:35:38 PMWe'll also be doing a Reclaiming Jacksonville book signing at the food truck rally for anyone interested who may have missed the Restore Jacksonville event. We'll have more details on this, each of the food truck rally participants and what another community is doing to accommodate the growing industry this upcoming Monday.
fieldafm
June 01, 2012, 06:48:31 AMToday is the last day for this contest. All you have to do is share the event page on Facebook. This is an opportunity to win two tickets to the Second Harvest FOODFIGHT next Thursday. Two tickets sell for $120, and one person is going to get these for free all for just letting people know about one of the coolest events to come downtown in a long time.
MissMinda
June 02, 2012, 05:21:48 PMAbsolutely! The family will be in attendance and I'll be promoting it around the office, as well.
MissMinda
June 06, 2012, 03:10:04 PMAny word on the winner?
fieldafm
June 06, 2012, 03:28:57 PMYes, it was announced on Facebook Tuesday. The winner has been notified. Sorry Miss Minda. I will buy you a brisket skewer or smoked tofu skewer(one of Driftwood's special menu items) or a Cleveland sandwich (one of my favorite items in the Jax Truckies landscape) though if you come see me and introduce yourself at the event.
Deal?
Bridges
June 06, 2012, 03:32:51 PMHas there been any movement with DVI or downtown with regards to food trucks?
tufsu1
June 06, 2012, 09:34:06 PMthey are in favor of Saturday's event....because it is on private property!
MissMinda
June 09, 2012, 10:51:38 AMHow will I know you?
MissMinda
June 09, 2012, 01:16:00 PMJust got home
The family ordered
We stopped by Burrito Gallery for drinks on the way out.
Awesome time! Lovely people. Rain was little deterrent. I hope everyone comes out!
Tacachale
June 09, 2012, 02:23:13 PMIt has been nuts out here. Gee, think there's a pent up demand for this kind of thing downtown?
BridgeTroll
June 09, 2012, 02:26:24 PMLarge crowd... great food!
RockStar
June 09, 2012, 02:53:01 PMAwesome event! It's amazing what we can do when the city doesn't get involved....
aaapolito
June 09, 2012, 04:12:59 PMGreat event. Thanks to all who put it together. I hope that COJ wakes up and realizes that these food trucks are popular, in demand, not a threat to brick and mortar restaurants and a great catalyst for small business.
fsujax
June 09, 2012, 04:49:39 PMA huge success and great day for Downtown! thanks Mike Field, BG and all those involved in putting this together.
tufsu1
June 09, 2012, 04:51:56 PMAwesome turnout...congrats to Mike Field, Caron, and others that put this together!
CityLife
June 09, 2012, 05:00:40 PMGreat turnout and great event. Could really grow into something special for Downtown.
Talked to a couple of the BG guys and sounds like they are killing it today too.
dougskiles
June 09, 2012, 05:35:24 PMYep - that was cool. Talk about activity downtown! Great job folks. We got there a little late (most of the food was gone) but we did get some key lime gelato sandwiches. Perfect for a hot day. Then we rode up to the disc golf course where I got my usual beat down from Jacob.
This looked really good - next time...
Noone
June 10, 2012, 06:04:06 AMTufsu1 saw you at the event. Didn't get a chance to share with you but a street vendor called me and told him that in 60 days you'll need an additional permit. It was like WHAT? Also told me that non compliance can result in a police action. Everyone is being warned. Public, Private, Partnership. Still trying to wrap my arms around it. I'm sure it will be simply explained with the new Authority.
tufsu1
June 10, 2012, 08:27:35 AM^ for one thing, there is no new authority yet. Second, I see nothing wrong with requiring street vendors (including food trucks) to have a permit. Charging them a fee based on location would go a long way in addressing the concerns of brick & mortar establishments.
thelakelander
June 10, 2012, 08:48:13 AMThis is what happens when rallys are thrown in downtown locations. Additional foot traffic is generated and people who would have never came downtown discover brick and mortar businesses. Burrito Gallery ended up being understaffed because they felt their sales would be negatively impacted by the food trucks. Instead, as we've been promoting for months now based on events in other cities, they had double the amount of sales. Another Jacksonville myth blasted into history.
Here are a couple of images from the rally. There will be several more in tomorrow's front page article:
Metro Jacksonville t-shirts coming soon.
A good day at the truck. Closing a couple of hours early.
Noone
June 10, 2012, 09:38:28 AMThe rallys are great. I'm saying these are happening outside of city sanctioned special events and the future zones that are being proposed. Have both. Awesome event.
thelakelander
June 10, 2012, 09:40:49 AM^My post wasn't in response to your's, Noone. I just wanted to share a few images from yesterday and kill a prominent myth regarding food trucks.
Tacachale
June 10, 2012, 09:56:08 AM^I spent more money at Burrito Gallery than I did at the rally itself. And after I left I went to Chamblins and picked up a book, as I am want to do when I have the occaision to be downtown, and a soda from the cafe. At the rally I heard from someone that Prometheus was playing at the Sunray Cinema, so later I came back from the beach to go to the movies. This is a bad thing?
Bridges
June 10, 2012, 10:23:42 AMThe silence from DVI about the event is deafening. So they're against food trucks downtown, fine, I disagree, but ok. But why arent they promoting this huge downtown event? No mention of it.
Seems like they need to change their name, they aren't supporting Downtown, and they clearly lack Vision.
stephendare
June 10, 2012, 10:44:14 AMIn fairness, Terri Lorrince, the executive director came over and admitted that she was blown away both by the event and by the turn out. She said that she regretted their position (although there were qualifications to the regret) and that she wanted to work so that the type of energy and activity that was present at yesterday's event would be present downtown.
She actually went so far as to say that the type of energy yesterday was going to be the only thing that could reactivate downtown over the next three years.
02roadking
June 10, 2012, 10:54:19 AMLike the t-shirts. Hoping the image is on the back as well.
tufsu1
June 10, 2012, 06:02:01 PMI think it is important to keep in mind that organizations like DVI are run by their members. Staff may think something is a good idea, but it doesn't matter if their boards don't agree.
As for promting the event, they did include it in their weekly event listing e-blast....and I believe there was a quote from their executive director supporting the event in a news article earlier in the week.
fieldafm
July 11, 2012, 09:25:37 AMTonight, Beaches Watch is hosting a food truck forum at 7pm at the Neptune Beach Library. The meeting is open to the public, and I believe will be live blogged on the site. This will be a panel discussion with a QandA session.
We'll have tshirts for sale in L and XL tonight as well.
This is a GREAT opportunity to show your support for food trucks at the beaches, so please consider coming out tonight.
Next month, tackling downtown
fieldafm
July 11, 2012, 11:12:37 AMBTW, there is an article in this month's EU Jacksonville about food trucks as well.
thelakelander
July 11, 2012, 11:34:36 AMThis is what we'll have available for $15/shirt or 2 for $25.
These, along with MetroJacksonville.com shirts will be available online by the end of the week.
fieldafm
July 11, 2012, 01:45:37 PMThe newest truck (btw, two more have opened in the last week):
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/423471/gary-mills/2012-07-11/jacksonvilles-newest-food-truck-salty-fig-rolls-out
copperfiend
July 11, 2012, 01:52:12 PMIt would be cool if they could coordinate food trucks into tailgating at Jags games this upcoming season.
Non-RedNeck Westsider
July 11, 2012, 01:55:26 PMHell No! If Field coordinates (which he's really good at) then we'll have rain at all 10 home games.
fieldafm
July 11, 2012, 02:00:26 PMThat's not going to happen.
They did have a food truck at the final two home games of 2011, Sloppy Joelopy.. which is a food truck owned by Levy Restaurants.