CociNana Start Up Food Truck

I have been trying to figure out how to launch my food business for almost two years and though the plans and scope may have changed a few times here and there, I am pleased to announce that things are finally coming together.
I have taken the action to start a Food Truck in the Arlington, Va area. Many of you have shared the road of exploration as I initially focused on trying to launch my line of Tamales into the Take Home and Delivery market. For various reasons this presented challenges that were hard to figure out and develop a start up plan I could execute with my modest funds and wild dreams. As we approached this new year I was determined to give the whole idea a fresh look. In doing so I kept coming back to the Food Truck, an idea, that I will admit, I fought hard against from the beginning. What I wanted was to get my Tamales in your house where you could enjoy them with your community of friends or to treat yourself with one of my favorite childhood comfort foods and family dishes. I could find no clear path to starting that process rolling other than the small private orders I had always done for friends and acquaintances. In taking a fresh look at things though, I suddenly realized that though the Truck was not my end goal, the Truck was an achievable start up point. With a little help from you, my family of friends, art and heritage. So as I embark on this journey I am reaching out to you through this campaign to help me raise some funds to get the CociNana truck on the road.

CociNana is an endearment to the many years of my youth I spent in the kitchens of my Grandmas, Tias, Aunties and other Nanas.

Nana's Kitchen. Cocina Nana. CociNana. 

Though the primary initial focus of the truck will be the Tamales I have been trying to get in yours and others hands for the last two years, I will be offering up other comforts discovered in Nana's Kitchen.

I have found the truck I want and have reached an agreement with the sellers who have accepted my initial deposit and worked with me to structure a private financing agreement that lets me get the truck on the road sooner rather than later.

The truck has been freshly outfitted and approved through all Arlington county inspections recently, so though I will have to do some of this again for my specific use case on the truck the process should not present much challenge. I am in discussion with a few kitchen/depot partners to secure the other big end of the regulatory demands. Once that is set there will hopefully be a clear road to hitting the Boulevards and byways of Arlington.

I will be working hard between now and then to do pop ups, drop ins, and parties to raise money, awareness of our products and hopefully invite new faces to this growing campaign.

I hope to raise $15,000+ over this one month campaign.

A large part of these funds will help me make a secondary payment on the truck that will greatly reduce the amount of monthly expenses the truck financing payments would eat up. This secondary payment is due January 15th, the closing day of our campaign. 

Additionally the funds will be used to:

Outfit the new kitchens for a truck oriented service.

Help secure our Kitchen/Depot contract.

Brand and Merchandise the CociNana truck.

Meet regulatory hurdles, fines and procedures.

Hopefully if we meet or exceed this goal we will have a small but necessary cushion to facilitate day to day operations and help catch our fall for the unforeseen gifts that Murphy brings.

So many of you have shared in this road so far and with your help I hope to continue to grow this dream.

I am eternally grateful for all your support and look forward to seeing you out the window.

You will find some rewards for particular levels of giving listed here but if there is something you don't see but would convince you to support this dream just drop me a line and let me know.

If you would rather make your donation offline and in person your gift amount will be noted here with whatever level of public acclaim (or not) you are comfortable with.