Downtown's First Food Truck Rally A Success
This past weekend, thousands swarmed downtown Jacksonville to attend the Jax Truckies presented by Metrojacksonville.com gourmet food truck rally to stamp out hunger at Burrito Gallery. Benefitting Second Harvest Food Bank. This demonstration project proved that food trucks can be a cost effective economic benefit for existing businesses and generating additional foot traffic on downtown's streets. Today, scenes from the rally to stamp out hunger.
Food trucks from all over North Florida served up unique, gourmet food to the hungry masses of Jacksonville in this first of its kind event. Offering tremendous and affordable variety of hand-crafted, artisan foods, the hungry masses came out in full force to support ten trucks currently operating all over North Florida.
Thank you for all that you do for Jacksonville's Food Trucks! Glad to have you leading the charge for small business! You guys are the Best!!
Diftwood BBQ
“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."
For example, with some truck wait lines of over an hour adjacent to Burrito Gallery, long lines flocked to the brick and mortar establishment resulting in a significant increase in sales. In addition to Burrito Gallery, others in the crowd took the opportunity of their trip to downtown to visit places like the main public library, Chamblin's Uptown and the Jacksonville Landing.
This was absolutely, unequivocally, EPIC. To see Jacksonville support the food truck "scene" as hardcore as they did today, gives so much more incentive and motivation to have our truck done ASAP! Waiting on the bank now, for the loan, and then we'll be having M&R Trailers build our "dream" truck! So many thanks, and so many congratulations to all involved. Y'all are rockstars, and are ALWAYS going to be welcome at our window!
The Smoked Meat Militia Food Truck
Another benefit of the event was the donation of all admission revenue to local charity. Participants were 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.
Thank you so much for arranging this. What can we do to change Jacksonville's laws to make it better for food trucks ? Sign me up.
Ann Johnson Greene
The original Jax Truckies food truck rally in Riverside was capped at 300 to keep the lines manageable. There was no cap for this downtown demonstration event. With no cap in place, it's been estimated that over 2,000 came out to enjoy several of North Florida's food trucks on Saturday. Although the rally was scheduled to operate for six hours from 11a.m. to 5p.m., the large crowd had many trucks running low on their supply of food after the first two hours, effectively demonstrating the demand for this industry in Jacksonville.
Amazing job and turn out guys. Imagine how many didn't show due to weather. There needs to be another one soon. If you ever want help please give me a shout. I'd be more than happy to help promote this scene.
Duncan Woodbury
For those in attendance, what did you like best about the rally and what do you think should be done to improve future events? For more images and daily updates on food truck locations visit our Jax Truckies facebook page.
Article by Ennis Davis. Photographs by Ennis Davis and Caron Streibich
Thank you for all that you do for Jacksonville's Food Trucks! Glad to have you leading the charge for small business! You guys are the Best!!
Diftwood BBQ
“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."
For example, with some truck wait lines of over an hour adjacent to Burrito Gallery, long lines flocked to the brick and mortar establishment resulting in a significant increase in sales. In addition to Burrito Gallery, others in the crowd took the opportunity of their trip to downtown to visit places like the main public library, Chamblin's Uptown and the Jacksonville Landing.
This was absolutely, unequivocally, EPIC. To see Jacksonville support the food truck "scene" as hardcore as they did today, gives so much more incentive and motivation to have our truck done ASAP! Waiting on the bank now, for the loan, and then we'll be having M&R Trailers build our "dream" truck! So many thanks, and so many congratulations to all involved. Y'all are rockstars, and are ALWAYS going to be welcome at our window!
The Smoked Meat Militia Food Truck
Another benefit of the event was the donation of all admission revenue to local charity. Participants were 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.
Thank you so much for arranging this. What can we do to change Jacksonville's laws to make it better for food trucks ? Sign me up.
Ann Johnson Greene
The original Jax Truckies food truck rally in Riverside was capped at 300 to keep the lines manageable. There was no cap for this downtown demonstration event. With no cap in place, it's been estimated that over 2,000 came out to enjoy several of North Florida's food trucks on Saturday. Although the rally was scheduled to operate for six hours from 11a.m. to 5p.m., the large crowd had many trucks running low on their supply of food after the first two hours, effectively demonstrating the demand for this industry in Jacksonville.
Amazing job and turn out guys. Imagine how many didn't show due to weather. There needs to be another one soon. If you ever want help please give me a shout. I'd be more than happy to help promote this scene.
Duncan Woodbury
For those in attendance, what did you like best about the rally and what do you think should be done to improve future events? For more images and daily updates on food truck locations visit our Jax Truckies facebook page.
Article by Ennis Davis. Photographs by Ennis Davis and Caron Streibich