Native Food Trucks Are a Family Affair

Transcript

This is Minnesota Native News. I'm Marie Rock. For years, Native food trucks fed people at powwows across Indian Country. Now, a new generation of Native food trucks are taking their family businesses on the road. Reporter Travis Zimmerman caught up with these Indigenous entrepreneurs.
Travis Zimmerman: Three native owned food trucks from across Minnesota, serving different types of food, have been popping up at events statewide.
The owners of Trickster Tacos, Dakota and Mariah Grant, tell us how they got started.

Mariah Grant: So I first got the idea, um, pretty well, Five years ago, maybe six years ago. Um, I was an insurance agent and I specialized in actually insuring food trucks. So I learned about them from the inside out. We've been doing it for like four years now.
Dakota Grant: So we serve the beef traditional taco and then we also do the key lime chicken taco. And we also offer our vegetarian soy chorizo taco for vegetarian friends. We also have the wasabi fried bread.
TZ:Wanawotapi is another native owned food truck run by Ann O'Keefe and her husband Frankie Jackson. They say family and culture inspired their business model.

Frankie Jackson: You know, if you're from a Dakota family and you had a grandma that you grew up around, you know, um, it was pretty common for you to hear the phrase Wanawota, you know, which means come and eat.
Anne O’Keefe: : My mom's a big cook. Frankie's mother's a big cook. But originally, we looked at getting the food truck because, uh, for, you know, all Native communities, right, when you gather, you eat, you know how important that is to have good food.

TZ: One of the newest Native food trucks out there is the Slush Lab, which just opened in July. Owner Candice Chase says the process for permitting was the biggest obstacle.
Candace Chase: We've been going through the process of like permits and things and getting like our applications in and everything so that took us a while. I thought the truck would have taken us a lot longer but it didn't.

TZ: Each truck has a unique story and delicious food but one thing they all have in common is that their food trucks are a family affair. Mariah Grant from Trickster Taco says their kids help them out on their food truck.
MG: One of our favorite things is that we get to be family business. For Um, so Dakota actually was able to quit his full time job in construction, um, and transition into this full time. And then I still do insurance on the side, but that's more my side job now. Um, and Trickster is like our full time thing for both of us. Um, and even our kiddos this year have stepped up and started working the food truck on a regular basis. So that's been fun.
TZ: Frankie Jackson and Anne O'Keefe. From Wanawutapi, also have family members helping them out.
AO: And usually I work on the food truck is either my sister, uh, Eileen, who's One of the best cashiers I got able to talk and work the crowd at the same time at taking orders. And then my daughter in law, Sandy, who is a killer on the different selections. Like we have a Barbie drink right now, currently with, um, edible glitter that we have. Um, so, you know, it's like, she's really into like trying new things and being creative with the coffee and iced coffee drinks.
TZ: These indigenous food truck owners are all thankful for the support of their native communities. Trickster Tacos owner, Mariah Grant, says they have another food truck owner They can call for guidance.
MG: We had really good friends who are Native as well. And they own Stephen D’s Food Truck. Um, and they taught me a lot about the business. They are like my mentors. And they have been for the past four years.
TZ: Wanawotapi owner, Anne O'Keefe, says the reason they do their work is to build community through food.
AO: So that's why we wanted to make sure that we could feed people and have different, um, Different way, a different venue and avenue to have people gather, uh, get to know each other. And that's usually over, you know, gatherings and food.
For Minnesota Native News, this is Travis Zimmerman.
Minnesota Native News is produced by Ampers, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities made possible by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.