LA County's efforts to support food vendors have failed to deliver the promised carts

In 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the mobile food economy, LA County officials won approval for an ambitious, multi-million dollar plan to help beleaguered street vendors across the region.

Initially, $5.81 million was allocated to the effort – and last month another $1 million was allocated.

The initiative's goals include making it easier for vendors of tamales and other staple foods on Southland's sidewalks to get county registration and permits. Complex licensing and permitting requirements have long hampered food vendors, who number in the thousands.

The centerpiece of the $6.81 million project: producing 200 code-compliant food trucks and distributing them free of charge to vendors.

But nearly two years later, when the program was officially launched by the Department of Economic Opportunity, none of the cars had been built.

The county has spent more than $700,000 so far on outreach, education and other efforts, according to public records. The money — which comes from nearly $2 billion in funding it received through the 2021 American Rescue Plan, the pandemic-era stimulus package — must be spent or contracted by Dec. 31.

The Department of Economic Opportunity's lack of progress during a difficult period for vendors, many of whom are Latino immigrants, has drawn fierce criticism from a prominent industry executive in private conversations with officials and at public meetings. Matt Geller, chief executive of the National Food Truck Assn., told the Times that “the mendacity of everything they're doing comes down to this.” [having] “No experience in the room.”

“My enemy is time,” said Geller, 49, who is also co-founder of Revolution Carts, which developed the first hot food cart approved by the LA County Department of Public Health in 2021. “Every single day that a vendor can't sell legally … that's my enemy. It keeps me up at night.”

Kelly LoBianco, director of the Department of Economic Opportunity, acknowledged that she would like to see the process “move along more quickly.”

“I know we're a government; we're doing the best we can,” she said. “I think we're making progress. “We're definitely running a community-driven process.”

LoBianco acknowledged Geller's criticism but stressed the importance of ongoing educational work, which includes approving clinics. She also said a 2022 state law allowing for a new, simplified grill cart as well as active dialogue with providers has prompted the county to rethink its plans.

For years, there has been something of a holy grail in the mobile food industry: an easily accessible cart that can prepare a wildly popular street food — tacos. Under the old rules, to be permitted, a grill cart had to have multiple sinks, which would make it extraordinarily large and heavy. But with the passage of Senate Bill 972 two years ago, a potentially game-changing new category emerged: the “auxiliary grill cart.” They are not required to have sinks — provided they have approved access to one nearby — making it easier to outfit carts that can prepare the raw meat needed for tacos, burritos and other in-demand items.

The siren song of al pastor and carne asada sizzling on the grill proved irresistible. After “strategizing,” LoBianco said, the county scrapped its original plan to make all of the free carts hot-hold carts, which keep food warm but don't allow cooking. Instead, the county plans to fund the manufacturing of 20 additional grill carts and purchase about 180 more carts of various types. The types may include fruit carts, hot-hold carts and grill carts with multiple sinks.

The diverse options are exactly what providers wanted, said Doug Smith, senior director of policy and legal strategy at Inclusive Action for the City, a nonprofit that the county chose under a roughly $3.1 million contract to lead the shopping cart project and other parts of the program.

“Our North Star … meets the needs and priorities of street vendors – who have told us time and time again that they need and want more options than just keeping shopping carts warm,” said Smith, whose organization helped pass SB 972.

Blueprints for the add-on grill carts, designed by the Kounkuey Design Initiative on behalf of the county, are being made public so other manufacturers can use the design. The Department of Economic Opportunity said in a statement that it expects delivery of the free carts in early 2025.

Although a deadline for distributing the carts was never announced, Geller said he was informed by county staff in mid-2023 that they would be distributed by summer. “That,” he said, “shifts the targets.”

“I will never take away from the fact that you don't seem to care, that you can change lives today,” he said of the department. “And you just keep getting it done.”

Revolution's cart is a hot-hold version. It's called the Tamalero and costs $7,500. Geller acknowledged that his company could benefit from the Department of Economic Opportunity's shift in strategy to direct purchasing, since it was the only one to receive approval to build a “model” hot-hold cart that could be mass-produced without having to put every employee through the plan-checking process.

“If you need 200 cars, I’ll get you 200 cars,” said Geller, a dedicated organizer with a law degree from UCLA.

Four years after California decriminalized street vending, the passage of SB 972 marked a turning point for the mobile food economy.

It established a new category of street vendor: the “compact mobile food establishment.” This classification includes items such as wheelbarrows, pedal-powered carts, stands, or other “non-motorized conveyances.” And a simplified regulatory framework provided an easier path for vendors using shopping carts to gain approval.

Keep in mind that the new rules have only affected one category, hot-hold carts: Before the changes, they could only be used to sell tamales and steamed hot dogs. Now, vendors can sell any prepackaged food that can be safely kept warm and is approved by the Department of Health. Geller said breakfast burritos, pulled pork sandwiches and potato tacos are working well.

The passage of some local laws this year will also make it easier to sell goods on the streets in the LA area, including by easing penalties for failure to comply with Department of Health regulations.

Still, vendors currently have extremely limited options for purchasing carts that are code-compliant. In the hot-hold category, there is only the Tamalero. As for grill carts, the Department of Health said only one company has received approval for a Model 1: All Valley Food Truck & Cart Manufacturing.

Geller said Revolution sold 84 Tamalero carts. The majority of those sales went to Taco Bell, which purchased 50 carts and gave many of them away to local merchants.

Beverly Estrada, who has owned a tamalero since 2022, said getting a licensed cart has completely changed her business, which she had been running out of the trunk of her car since 2020. At one point, she said, “The health department… they just…” came and took my food, told me I couldn't be there and gave me a citation. It's an overwhelming feeling of failure.”

Now, however, Estrada is selling tamales in a Home Depot parking lot in Downey as part of a pilot program that another of Geller's companies, the booking service Best Food Trucks, arranged with the major grocery chain. He said the program would have been a nonstarter without approved carts and that its success shows the tremendous need for ones that can be easily approved by the county as quickly as possible.

For Patrick Lennon, another co-founder of the revolution, it was “harrowing” to watch what he called a “fiddly” public process slowly unfold.

“We have success stories of vendors achieving six-figure revenues annually,” he said. “It's more than handing over a device – it's handing over a manual for a new world.”

Chelina Odbert, director of Kounkuey Design, said plans for the additional barbecue cart designed by her company have not yet been submitted to the Ministry of Health for approval and declined to say when that is expected to happen.

Still, LoBianco said her department will meet the Dec. 31 deadlines.

Times writer Rebecca Ellis contributed to this report.