What happened?
The City of Fresno presented the first official mobile vendor identification cards to Luz Barron and Luis Coria of “La Kumbre” as part of a new citywide effort.
Luz Barron and her husband Luis Coria became the first mobile food vendors in Fresno to receive their vendor identification cards that allow them to freely sell on city sidewalks and parks.
The IDs are part of ongoing efforts by elected officials to streamline the permit process for mobile food vendors in the city and in the county. Starting Friday, June 6, vendors with a business license and health permit can apply for ID badges by the city, with citywide enforcement of the IDs starting July 1 as part of the city’s new sidewalk vending ordinance
For Barron, the ID marks the end of a long permit process and her worries of incurring fines from the city for her cart, “La Kumbre.”
“I approached Cultiva La Salud and they helped me with each step in getting my permits,” said Barron in an interview, adding “it’s a long [process], but you can do it and you can achieve it.”
Councilmember Miguel Arias was joined at the conference by Supervisor Luis Chavez, Executive Director of Cultiva La Salud Veva Islas and Dora Westerlund, CEO of the Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation.
Arias said that the IDs work to both make mobile food vendors officially recognized business owners by the city and to let the public know that vendors have been vetted by both the city and the county if they are selling food.
“To the public, if you see Luis and Luz in the City of Fresno parks and in the city selling, you have the full confidence that the city has validated and confirmed that their food is safe and they are legitimate small business owners in our community and you are welcome and invited to buy from them,” Arias said before presenting the first IDs to Barron and Coria during a news conference on Friday.
On the county side, Chavez said he’d like to replicate the city’s permit process for food vendors in rural communities.
Moreover, in partnership with the city, Cultiva La Salud and the Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation, Chavez announced plans to create a centralized location where mobile vendors can get their permits for their businesses.
“We will be working on what we dreamed of from the beginning, a one stop shop centralized location where anybody that is interested in being a food vendor can go get their city business license and their county health public permits,” Chavez said.
When citywide enforcement begins on July 1, Fresno’s mobile food vendors operating without an ID should expect a warning on the first offense, fines of $25 and $50 on second and third violations, respectively, and a maximum fine of $100 on subsequent offenses.
On top of plans from the city and county, Islas said that there is still more work to be done to support mobile food vendors. According to Islas, the final plans for an open kitchen facility for vendors to utilize are being reviewed and efforts to authorize Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations (MEHKO) for rural vendors to operate from their home kitchens are ongoing.
“Some of these vendors that you do see here are from rural areas and while we have a process that’s good here in the city of Fresno now, we don’t have the equivalent processes in all the small cities where they may be working in,” said Islas
“Any council leaders that may be listening to this, if you’re interested in figuring out how you open a community kitchen, or how you help advocate for MEHKO and how you help small food businesses, please reach out to us, because we would be more than happy to collaborate with you.”
Islas also said that the Farms Food Future (F3) Initiative has been providing Fresno’s mobile food vendors with free classes for food safety certification and business development.
Westerlund shared the same sentiment as Islas and said that while there is still work to be done, the Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation will continue to guide vendors through the permit process.
“We are here as a form of assistance, [to hand hold] them through the process and we will continue to help them, and to anyone in Fresno County, to all mobile food vendors, this is a call for you to come and access,” Westerlund said.
Westerlund also encouraged mobile vendors to apply for the foundation’s grants to help with their business operations, which can award eligible vendors up to $4,000. More information about the foundation’s grants can be found here in English and Spanish.
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