Mobile street food vendors make last stop
Hyattsville resolution ended legal operation of trucks on Sunday
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Juan Martinez of Mount Rainier has a familiar routine: He arrives at work at around 11 a.m., takes phone calls, chops vegetables and prepares an array of Latin American foods — pupusas, tacos and carne asada — all within a truck.
Martinez and his wife, Teresa, are among six mobile food vendors who for the past few years have been preparing and selling Latin American food out of trucks parked in the 5600 block of Ager Road. But as of Sunday, the street has been clear of the trucks — permanently.
The move came after the city discovered a loophole in Prince George's County's ordinance that prevented the county from enforcing its own code prohibiting mobile food vending, other than prepackaged or pre-prepared foods, within Hyattsville city limits, the city's code enforcement director, Jerry Hampton, said.
The city's code is now in line with the county's, which prohibits mobile food vending other than the selling of prepackaged or pre-prepared foods such as ice cream. The only exception is special events, Hampton said.
"The neighborhood ice cream man who rings his bell, and kids comes out, he's there for a brief amount of time to give out pre-packaged food," Hampton said.
The vendors along Ager Road, he said, stay in one location all day and operate much like restaurants out of trucks.
The city's communication manager, Abigail Sandel, said the vendors also have an unfair advantage over brick-and-mortar restaurants that have higher overhead costs because they are in buildings.
The county ordinance went largely unenforced until 2007, when efforts to amend it failed and the county cracked down on the vendors. Some of the vendors moved from the Langley Park area to the city of Hyattsville since the county code couldn't be enforced within the city limits, according to the city's ordinance.
William Hanna, director of nonprofit community organization Action Langley Park, lamented the loss of the mobile food vendors in Langley Park. He said aside from the convenience of the trucks, they served as meeting places for many residents.
"It's a dull community now. When the trucks were there, the streets were lively," Hanna said. "They were social and cultural centers."
In Hyattsville, the vendors said they had plenty of notice about the deadline, but some said they were unsure of where they are off to next and stayed on the block until the Sunday deadline.
"The people, they know we are here," Juan Martinez said in Spanish from his truck Friday. "The customers are here and the majority of them can't [afford] to eat in a restaurant. Sometimes all they have is $3."
Kenia Amaya has worked in one of the trucks along Ager Road for about five years. She worried about how she and other employees would support their families without the trucks.
Teresa Martinez said there isn't much work available and that they will have to look for a new location to run their business, which relies heavily on call-in orders.
"We have one child here and three in El Salvador," Teresa Martinez said in Spanish.
"Our whole family depends on this," Juan Martinez added.
Leonardo Castaneda of Hyattsville said he does not know what he will do without the trucks he frequents most weekends.
"I don't always have time to cook," he said in Spanish. "It's practical and it's Latino [food]."
Erika Reyes and Miriam Lopez, who live in the nearby apartment complex, stopped for lunch at the trucks Friday afternoon. As they waited, Reyes said she buys food from the trucks three or four times a week. She said their location is helpful when trying to put together meals for her three children.
"For us, it's much easier. It's something very convenient," she said in Spanish.
Lopez concurred.
"It's economical, it's clean and it's delicious," she said in Spanish.
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