If AB1678 gains any traction in the California State Assembly, the majority of the state’s food trucks will be barred from selling in most urban areas, and their owners and staff – and the dozens of support staff they, in turn, employ – will be out of work.
The bill is ostensibly about reducing threats to proper nutrition in California schools, but instead of doing anything whatsoever to improve the appeal, price or nutritional value of food served in schools, it simply makes it impossible for food trucks – which are an easy target, and not a real threat to the nutrition of school-age kids – to do business within 1,500 feet of a school.
At first glance that sounds reasonable. 1,500 feet isn't that much – I can walk that in just a few minutes. But when you look at a map of Sacramento, Orange County or San Francisco, you see that those interlocking 1,500 foot zones actually occlude the majority of each city. This means the trucks will be stuck selling in only industrial, far-flung suburban office complexes or rural areas, far from the customer-rich downtown zones, parks, and downtown thoroughfares that are their bread and butter; most probably, this would be a death sentence for most and maybe all food trucks, and certainly would mean the end of the most interesting "gourmet" trucks that have sprung up in recent years.
You can save these jobs, and tell Assembly lawmakers and the authors of the bill itself that legislation meant to improve California’s health needs to do more than simply shut down small businesses – the majority of which don’t, and have no interest in, selling to schoolchildren to begin with.
Sign this letter and click submit. That’s it. The legislature wants to do what is in the interest of all of California, and if we make our interest clear, they will listen.
