This Is What It’s Like To Be A Food Truck Owner During COVID-19

Food trucks are, and always have been, mavericks, bringing restaurant cuisine to where no chef has cooked before.

But with COVID-19 rampant, times are tough. The $985 million industry is noticeably missing from relief aid. Their usual customers—pedestrians strolling the streets and office workers checking out for lunch—are confined to their homes. 

“I would not be surprised if more than half go out of business permanently,” sighs John Ou, owner of LA’s The Fix on Wheels. 

Food trucks were born out of a need for change: restaurant rents were high and food trucks were a way to reach a wider range of customers in a less expensive way. Ten years after the food truck boom, trucks are being forced to think outside the box yet again.

Now, trucks are driving into residential neighborhoods and parking outside hospitals, peddling their dishes to a whole new crowd to stay alive. “Pivoting is part of food truck life,” says B.J. Lofback is owner of Nashville’s Funk Seoul Brother. 

With no one on the street, he’s taken to turning his truck into neighborhoods, beckoning to the house-bound to pop out for a bite. “The fundamental idea with food trucking is to go where people are,” he explains. He focused on neighborhoods with clubhouses and pool parking lots.

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This post was written by Arturo