Eating Well from Street to Street

On Saturday I joined the crowds in San Francisco’s Mission District to experience La Cocina’s fourth annual Street Food Festival.

The sunny streets were full of happy people enjoying tasty delights from 85 vendors—including from some of my former students: Gail Lillian of LIBA Falafel, Claire Keane of Clairesquares, Antoinette Sanchez of Endless Summer Sweets, and Neal Gottlieb of Three Twins Ice Cream.  What a treat!

Neal and Paul at SF Street Food Festival

As a small, start-up food business it is a challenge to break into the industry and be successful. Food entrepreneurs can have great ideas and delicious recipes but they also need to afford legal kitchen space and the start-up costs to open their businesses, find a niche, compete for shelf space and break into a crowded marketplace. Motivated entrepreneurs like Gail, Claire, Antoinette and Neal are making it work by renting kitchen space and/or selling out of a food truck. (Neil started very small over 6 years ago and now sells ice cream in almost every state.)

Luckily, food businesses don’t have to jump into business ownership without some support. La Cocina’s non-profit kitchen incubator and programs for low-income, immigrant and women-owned food businesses and Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center’s programs and small business incubator provide valuable training and support. There are other non-profits and businesses sprouting up around the city to help food entrepreneurs and strengthen the local food movement—from the Underground Market and Forage Kitchen, to the new Good Food Merchants Guild and Good Eggs.

City government is also helping to make the climate easier for food start-ups, such as easing regulations for street food vendors and even passing an ordinance to allow community gardeners and city farmers to sell their produce directly to the public on site. And we’re all waiting to see what transpires with the California Homemade Food Act.

It was great to see the success of small street merchants and so many supporters of the Bay Area’s local food movement this weekend. Let’s keep up the support for sustainable food businesses!