You may be aware La Cocina, our local non-profit food business incubator, is behind the San Francisco Street Food Festival, which drew 13,000 people last year, and is coming up again on August 21 with over double the vendors. Now you can get involved in its newest project as well. The Mobile Food Vending Program will help low-income entrepreneurs gain the permits, space and logistical knowledge they need to make their business plans a reality; and they are currently doing a fundraiser with GiveChange in the hopes of raising $5000 to fund workshops in the coming year. Making this a true gift-that-gives-back situation, GiveChange has set up all sorts of food-related rewards for donors: like deals at Off the Grid stands, gift cards for use at Bi-Rite Market, $50 off bottle service at Harlot and rewards from Restaurant.com at over 20 local businesses.
They're also hosting a big La Cocina benefit party on August 27th at The Ambassador with extended happy hour deals, free food from La Cocina businesses and a raffle. Getting back to the point of all this, La Cocina tells us specific mobile food vendors that will benefit from this program immediately are Japanese soul food vendor, Onigilly, which is working toward a cart in Justin Herman Plaza, and Global Soul. But that's really just cracking the surface on the many vendors that will benefit from the program throughout the coming year. Did we mention this is a win-win?
Street Food Festival And Conference! [7x7]
Veronica of La Cocina-incubated El Huarache Loco shows off the goods.