Food Trucks: Creative, Collaborative and Community Building

By Leah Moss, Communications and Outreach Director, AFPC

National Food Truck Day is upon us and in this moment of celebration, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the expanding role food trucks have taken on in our food systems and in our communities as a whole.

We sat down to talk to Darrin Huycke with Huycke Entertainment who has been running the Spenard Food Truck Carnival for over a decade to find out why he is so committed to supporting this burgeoning industry in Anchorage.

The food truck carnival started small in Downtown Anchorage led by the late John D’Elia the head chef at Marx Bros Cafe.

“In 2012 Anchorage started seeing a couple of trucks kind of become a thing. The trend was already happening in the lower 48, but we as Alaskans are naturally behind the curve. So they started by hiring a couple of food trucks to come out to serve food at a one-day Block Party festival.”

It was a great success and they decided to make things happen more regularly.

“They decided to do Thursday lunches because it was the best timeframe that wasn't a weekend where they would go out to other festivals, events, or breweries. They wanted something to have that would be a good lunch, to gather trucks together to have the sense of a community of food trucks as a food truck market.”

It gave chefs a chance to try new things and be creative with their menus in ways that they couldn’t always be with the set menus of restaurants.

“So we ran with the sense of working shoulder to shoulder and collaborating on how to create this very grassroots, independently owned locally owned market working side by side.”

The food truck carnivals started with an original group of 6. They eventually expanded into the Spenard location and after a couple of years, it started to click.

“There was distinctively a day where it was just like oh my gosh, we did it. It was just packed. There was a vibe there was excitement.”

The original 6 are no longer a part of the food truck carnivals due to some becoming brick-and-mortar and others phasing out.

“The reality of it is that the food truck longevity in Anchorage was two years. The longevity was two years up until about last year this year.”

Food trucks do come with their own unique challenges, one of the biggest being our long winters.

“They try to operate in winter and they have mechanical issues. It's so ridiculously tough to do it in January and February, but some do most I would say 90% of food trucks shut down for the entire winter from about the middle of October to the beginning of Fur Rondy at the end of February. Most of the trucks shut down because they don't want to jeopardize the truck and they don't want to jeopardize the brand. If somebody has a bad experience, and no matter if it's been, you know, negative degrees, the temperature of January or to the sunny day in July, it can have an effect on the business.”

Other challenges, which the Alaska Food Policy Council hopes to help support through our Regional Food Business Center, include navigating permitting, inspections, business plans, and health code regulations. These are important steps to create a safe and sustainable food business but they come with some hurdles.

“I would love to see a streamlined resource to help people start a food truck here with a packet of information that included health department, fire department, and insurance resources. Including small business training. Just something that gives vendors the opportunity to look at the full picture.”

But even with the hurdles of weather and permits, whole new crops of food trucks have popped up. There are currently approximately 38 Food Trucks operating in Anchorage and many more across the state.

So what makes people keep opening new trucks?

“This freedom of creativity. The ones that I remember the most throughout the years are the ones that had true talents and delivered a vision. Whether it was something that their family always made from a heritage or something they always wanted to see and do and just have their own footing for it. It's the freedom to have that opportunity to show your craft…So to me, these guys are just like rock stars in their way.”

And the vendors themselves are not the only ones who benefit from this food truck market. The food scene as a whole does too.

“We're such a multicultural city. I love the diversity of the Alaska scene. These vendors can push the envelope a little bit locally and I feel that food trucks end up being this resource to continually push the quality.”

The Spenard Food Truck Carnival is now in its 12th year of operation and has been bringing the community together to try new foods and connect continually.

“I love when we're out there on Thursdays I love seeing people discuss with strangers the food that each other got. I sat there for lunch last week and a friend and I got a cupcake to share. Then we shared one of the picnic tables with two other groups. And it ended up being all of us talking about our food and what we liked. I like the sense of community that it provides not just to the businesses but to the attendees. That's a pretty cool thing I feel great being able to make that happen.”

That growing community is not slowing down anytime soon. Darrin is helping put together the food trucks for the Anchorage Museum’s Lunch on the Lawn series and the Anchorage’s July 4th event on the Park Strip and the next Taste of Spenard will be July 28th from 12- 5 PM.

Darrin continues to be inspired by the innovations of new vendors each year and as an avid food truck consumer, I am continually grateful for the expanding options to get together with friends and family outdoors, support local business, enjoy little bites, and come together over food.

“It excites me to keep having something that people want to see and be a part of, and obtain their goals through our little cutie market in Spenard.”