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Mobile Food News features PhillyMFA socially minded Vendor FULL ARTICLE HERE
"Then I found Little Baby’s Ice Cream from Philadelphia, PA. Ice cream had been the source of many problems, but now it was the solution. Little Baby’s started a “Funds for Recyclable Packaging” Kickstarter to buy reusable pints. Normally I would have kept moving, but this time it was compelling. Here is a company driving tricycles around talking about being “green” wanting to buy 20,000 plastic containers. It didn’t jive so I did what any weirdo would do, I called them.
Flavors like Earl Grey Sriracha or Cardamom Caramel served out of the coat check at hard core concerts also contribute to setting them apart; see it yourself HERE. Though all this sounds frivolous, Little Baby’s is persistently ranked top 10 on Yelp in the restaurant category. They once held the number 4 spot overall! Very serious about their food and very serious, it turns out, about their packaging. “Philadelphia has been good to us, and we need to be good back.” Said Pete Angevine of Little Baby’s Ice Cream." |
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Images are property of original article; PhillyMFA can be reached at info@phillymfa.com
NY Times: Truck Permanence
In fact, the indie food-truck operators who tweet their location of the day to those in the know in Philadelphia have been retweeted by the likes of Le Meridien, a luxury hotel in Center City across from a plaza where many trucks set up.
That a hotel would promote trucks across the street in addition to its own upscale brasserie is an indication that food trucks, as overexposed as they seem, have their merits: they churn out reliably good, affordable food that you wouldn’t find on an average menu. And in Philadelphia, the scene is far from reaching its saturation point. Full article HERE |
Charity and Community
Philadelphia Mobile Food Association brings food and funds to Fishtown, and residents savor both.
The idea of grabbing food when you’re on the go is hardly a new one. Lately in Philly though, it’s your food that’s on the go, traveling in food trucks that have been popping up on many a street corner. Thanks to the Philadelphia Mobile Food Association (PhillyMFA), Fishtown got a yummy taste of this forward-thinking food phenomenon last weekend, with a charitable bonus to boot. On Friday, May 4 at 6 p.m., PhillyMFA brought four local food trucks to the parking lot of Lutheran Settlement House, at 1340 Frankford Ave., as part of its first “pop-up” food truck event. Patrick O’Rourke, who coordinates marketing and communications for PhillyMFA, said that there was a constant in-and-out of about 100 people at the pop-up, and all of them were hungry. Full Article HERE |
State of the Union: Food Politics
As a registered 501(c)6, they (PhillyMFA) will have the ability to lobby for better rules and regulations and to bring industry–specific details to the attention of city officials. They won’t be required to have three sinks, like restaurants do (trucks don’t wash dishes on site, so the extra sink is unneeded), or be relegated to cutting rolls and packing patties in faraway commissaries.
“City Hall is a very complex place,” University of Pennsylvania Law Professor Praveen Kosuri (Pictured)explained, “I think the Mayor understands all this stuff, but the Mayor can’t act alone. Everything happens through City Council. That’s where it gets really complicated because you have … people who have a personal interest to maintain their power and to control what activity occurs in their ward, and sometimes that has nothing to do with what is best for the community or best for the city.” FULL ARTICLE HERE |
Civic Duty & Partnership
Dan Pennachietti is a three-meatballs-are-better-than-one kind of guy, usually from an eating perspective. But lately, the Italian American food vendor in Philadelphia is applying his strength-in-numbers point of view beyond gastronomic cravings.
His goal is to improve the business climate in the city for his burgeoning industry. Pennachietti has cofounded the Philadelphia Mobile Food Association (PMFA), incorporated as a nonprofit organization in February, to coalesce the concerns of a diffuse group of independent business owners into one influential voice. A nonthreatening voice, he emphasized. "We don't want to take a stand with the city that 'we're fighting you,' " Pennachietti, owner of Lil Dan's Gourmet food truck, said in an interview last week. "We want to educate." FULL ARTICLE HERE |
Gourmet Magazine
For the past year, I’ve been researching a truck food book. Early in my research, I fell hard for Philadelphia. Sure, there are sophisticated eats to be had here, but even the hippest of the new-guard Philadelphia vendors are more focused on food than folderol. You’ll find groupings of trucks at various spots around town. My roster of eight draws from the trucks parked at Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the old Post Office. Most are open weekdays only. If you’d like to dig deeper into the Penn scene, try this encyclomedia. FULL ARTICLE HERE |
Legislation Changes
"Street cuisine has come a long way from roach coach hot dogs slung on city corners and, by all indications, the gourmet-on-wheels trend shows no signs of slowing down. But many vendors say that Philadelphia's legislature has not kept up with the rapid revolution.
"The problem is that they put us under the same umbrella as restaurants. They don't see that we are different." Pennachietti said. The newly formed trade group PhillyMFA is seeking to change that." FULL ARTICLE HERE |
Economic Grass-roots
These trucks are tailor made for an economic downturn, so we should all be mobilizing the mobile food movement. Support your local food truck association if your city is launching a crackdown.
Throw a few bones to an interesting Kickstarter idea. And on your next lunch hour, go out of your way to swing by a tasty-sounding food truck. FULL ARTICLE HERE |
Improved Diets
"To get to the farmers market, I would need to take a taxi," Virginia Klein said, leaning an arm on her walker and holding a bag of produce with the other. "That can be very expensive." "This is not about selling all our vegetables. It's about getting people access to fresh food," says Helanna Bratman.
Common Greens serves the elderly and minority residents of this once-industrial Hudson Valley city. The market, which launched in July, keeps its prices low and accepts food stamps and WIC checks" FULL ARTICLE HERE |
Lot Program
The Philly Mobile Food Association is beginning to explore potential locations for a food truck pod in Mt. Airy.
The association, which was created, in part, by Mt. Airy resident Andrew Gerson (who runsStrada Pasta), aims to bring together different truck operators throughout the city to help support "the proliferation of food trucks in our city and aid our community," according to its Facebook page. ... One spot frequently mentioned as a good location for a so-called pod—where various trucks set up next to one another and serve—is Mt. Airy. The Association is scouting potential location as a parking lot behind the Sedgwick Theater. FULL ARTICLE HERE |
March 20th Roll-out
"The Philadelphia Mobile Food Association (PMFA) officially launched on Tuesday, hosting their first general meeting at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. With over 100 people in attendance, the meeting was quite a success and offered a glimpse into the opportunities and challenges facing Philly food truck owners. Prior to the meeting, food trucks Lil Dan’s, Smoke Truck, Sweet Box, HubBub Coffee, and Zsa’s Gourmet Ice Creamcongregated outside the school and sold gourmet fare to curious..." FULL ARTICLE HERE |
Entrepreneurship
How did Sue Wasserkrug travel from being a lawyer specializing in elder law? She was always passionate about cooking and her anthropological interests focused on Native American food traditions.
Her first post-legal career idea was to open a restaurant or an educational project/ pop-up museum highlighting native food traditions. Sue realized her dream was much-more hands-on. The idea of a food truck had germinated. FULL ARTICLE HERE |
Zoning Reform
On December 22, 2011, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter signed a new comprehensive zoning ordinance into law.
This represents a hard-fought victory for zoning reform advocates. Economically driven critiques of the city’s current zoning (originally adopted in 1962) circulated for years before voters finally approved the creation of a new Zoning Code Commission to spearhead the reform effort in May 2007. The city’s previous code was emblematic of the urban renewal era, requiring a strict separation of uses and dictating suburban lot sizes and setbacks. While these standards likely seemed reasonable, or even necessary, in 1962, by the mid-2000s the original goal of introducing suburban character to the inner city seemed quaintly out of step with contemporary zoning practice. FULL ARTICLE HERE |
