Nonprofit groups and city officials are working to make it easier for sidewalk vendors and food truck operators to comply with Los Angeles County Department of Public Health regulations.

In one recent example, Initiating Change in Our Neighborhoods Community Development Corp., better known as Icon CDC, has provided a loan to help construct a commissary for San Fernando Valley sidewalk vendors and food truck operators. The proceeds for the loan came from a $1 million state grant awarded to Icon CDC.

The commissary, which will be located in Sylmar, will be owned by The Food Truck Group. 

Roberto Barragán, managing director of Icon CDC, said that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health requires all food vendors to have a partnership with a commissary.

“It’s some place where they can park their equipment, clean it, resupply it and in general comply with public health rules around food preparation,” Barragán said. 

Maria Ponce and Kim Tapia, the mother and daughter team who own The Food Truck Group, said they are excited about the venture.

“They decided to help us with a loan to build a commissary because it is a necessity for the Valley,” Ponce said of the relationship between her company and Icon CDC. 

A partnership in the works

Tapia said that The Food Truck Group bought the property in Sylmar in October 2020 with plans to build a commissary on it. 

When Ponce and Tapia began working with Icon a couple of years ago, the nonprofit had just launched its street vending program and was awarding grants to individuals who owned carts or trucks, Tapia said.

Tapia said Icon CDC was receptive to the idea of a commissary, even though it did not have the money to support the venture initially. 

In the meantime, The Food Truck Group provided street vending carts to the individuals who received grants from Icon CDC, Tapia added. 

“Finally, in the last couple of months is when we sat down with Roberto and his team and they offered us a loan to build out a commissary on the property that we had purchased for that purpose,” Tapia said. 

She declined to disclose the amount of the loan.

More commissaries are needed

In the Valley, there are only seven commissaries serving hundreds and hundreds of trucks and carts, Barragán said. He added that there is no room for new clients at any of the existing facilities. 

“So people, besides having to pay for a permit, having to go through all the rules and having to drive all the way to Baldwin Park to get permitted, also are dealing with a lack of commissary space,” Barragán said. 

Elizabeth Padilla, the social entrepreneurs for economic development program manager at Icon, estimated that it could take as long as a year to complete the process of building the commissary. 

The commissary, which Barragán hopes to have open by the end of the year, will be able to serve about 40 to 50 food carts and 35 food trucks.

Barragán said the addition of a grease trap for emptying out a food truck or vending cart’s waste, a bigger storage facility and room for repair and maintenance are still needed to create the Sylmar commissary.

“The lot needs to be paved and infrastructure and power put in for access by food carts and food trucks,” he added. 

Icon CDC is not the only organization working to making things better for street vendors. 

On Feb. 9, Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez introduced legislation to support sidewalk vendors in the city and address longstanding gaps in related services. 

She represents the 1st District, which includes parts of northeast and northwest Los Angeles, including Chinatown, Echo Park, Koreatown and MacArthur Park.

“Sidewalk vendors are part of the fabric of Los Angeles, and they play a critical role in our culture and local economy,” Hernandez said in a statement. “There have been important wins in recent years that have decriminalized sidewalk vending, but the city needs to do more to open up pathways for these entrepreneurs to be able to thrive.”