Beyond the chip truck: Mobile vendors form group to build the industry

All aboard the MVAN.

A group of mobile vendors in St. John's hoping to build their industry is hitting the road together.

The Mobile Vendors Association of Newfoundland launched publicly Thursday with a board of directors representing seven different mobile businesses operating on the Avalon Peninsula.

"It's really cool to get some local businesses collaborating and fighting, for lack of a better word, for the same things," said Alicia McKenna, the association's secretary and co-owner of the Johnny & Mae's food truck.

Saucy Mouth food truck co-owners Brad Gover and Allyson Howse and Scout Mobile Clothing store owner Aryn Ballett came up with the idea for the association after vending at some of the same events and talking about the growing local mobile vendor community and the need for an collective.

Not just food trucks

After connecting with other local vendors, including Ziggy Peelgood's and Big Boy Baos, and holding meetings, they formed a board of directors and incorporated as an official non-profit.

"It's more (about) making it easier to speak to the municipalities and the provincial government," said Gover, MVAN's spokesperson.

We're hoping that maybe at the end of the summer we're going to have a big food truck festival.- Alicia McKenna

Gover said the group is open to working with any vendor whose business is on wheels and aren't tied solely to food trucks. Ballett, for example, sells recycled as well as new clothes out of a modified pink RV, and she knows of mobile massage therapists as well as a mobile dog washing business.

The association will also strive to be a common place for people to find information about the various mobile vendors throughout Newfoundland. One of the first posts on the group's new Facebook page was a call from the Town of Ferryland looking for vendors for their Come Home Year celebrations and Shamrock Festival.

Aside from working towards common goals, Gover said, the association also hopes to form a set of rules and standards for mobile vendors across the province.

"Hopefully when we get our membership together we'll be able to come up with standards and best practices and other things like that, that will keep the industry professional," he said.

Festival and tours

The association will also pave the way for collaborations like festivals.

"We're hoping that maybe at the end of the summer we're going to have a big food truck festival," McKenna said. Weather in Newfoundland can be unreliable, she added, and the logistics of getting all the vendors together may be complicated but it's something they would like to do. Gover says he can also see something like a cross-province tour of mobile vendors. 

The association has not yet put out a call for vendors to join but is accepting expressions of interest in joining from other vendors, and they expect to put more effort into it after the intense summer vending season winds down.

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