Help Mr.K's Build a Food Trailer

Dear Donor,

Mr. K’s Fabulous Franks is seeking to raise $7,000.00 for completion of a custom-built food trailer. The money raised will be used for additional building materials, new fire suppression system, cooking equipment, and labor.

OUR HISTORY

Over the course of the last (11) months many of you in the Las Cruces, El Paso and the greater Rio Grande Valley area have visited our pop-up hot dog stand, “Mr. K’s Fabulous Franks”. You’ve supported us, praised us, critiqued us, and become dedicated, loyal members with us.

You have helped us realize the potential of our part-time business, and what we must do to operate as a full-time venture. We now feel obligated to continue bringing our delicious hot dogs, corn, and drinks to the Las Cruces, and El Paso communities.

From the beginning our hot dogs have been a success, pleasing the palettes of customers throughout Dona Ana County, El Paso and beyond.

However, once November came our sales dropped dramatically. This is primarily caused by lack of outdoor entertainment activities at our winery locations, and perhaps our biggest obstacle is inclement weather, specifically wind.

Weather impacts street vendors more than any other type of business. Extreme heat, wind, and cold impacts street vending. In the Southwest wind specifically causes slow sales and location cancellations. This is especially true with a pop-up canopy set-up. With an enclosed food trailer, we’ll be able to continually operate without the obstacles associated with inclement weather.

Even though we are still able to vend at our Saturday location, inclement weather (specifically wind) makes operating a major challenge, and in some instances prevents us from operating at all. And while we thought we were prepared for the cold and wind; we soon realized it’s much more of a challenge than originally anticipated. Wind in the winter is totally different than wind in the summer.

These sudden changes have made me realize two very important issues:

1). As street vendors you rely on outdoor activities that operate year-round and brings crowds of people, even in adverse weather conditions.

2). Inclement weather is more severe than you anticipate in early planning stages if you want to operate year long.

These issues have made me recognize that we need to make a serious upgrade as soon as possible to operate year-round and make a further commitment to this community, we need a food trailer.

OTHER REASONS WHY WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT

2) Menu Expansion - During last summer we began the planning stages for two sausage recipes, one Smoked Italian Beef Sausage and one Jerk Chicken Sausage. We also did some test BBQs with our Smoked Beef Kebobs and Chicken Souvlaki. The tasters enjoyed them, to say the least.

Along with these meat offerings, we need to develop some vegan / vegetarian items. I’ve already begun on developing a very flavorful Falafel sandwich and we’re researching various vegetarian hot-dogs to find the perfect one.

However, as I discovered these recipes require us to be in an enclosed food trailer where everything can be prepped under one roof. With an enclosed food trailer, we can expand our menu and finally begin producing our signature sausages, and kabobs.

3) Faster, Better, Customer Service - With the completion of our food trailer, set-up will be much faster, service will be much faster, improved customer service all around. Right now, it takes an hour to set-up before we’re ready to serve. We have to set-up the canopy, cook on our cart, set-up tables and set-up our drinks. All this before we take our first order.

With an enclosed trailer we can cut the set-up time in half and begin taking orders within 30 minutes of arrival. This means we’ll have more time to operate and offer better service.

4) Ability to Vend the Same Day in Multiple Locations - As it stands now, we can’t vend in multiple same day locations. With the time it takes to set-up and break down we’re just not able to do it. However, with a food trailer we can set-up and break down much faster. Giving us plenty of time to do multiple same day locations.

5). Start Mr. K’s Catering Experience - One way to combat slow sales during the winter months is to expand and develop a solid catering and delivery service. This can greatly off-set poor sales during the winter months and offer a unique catering menu not currently available in this area.

ALLOCATION OF YOUR DONATIONS

As it states in our “Goals of This Fundraiser” our campaign is for completion funding of our food trailer. Your donation will be used for final building materials, a new fire suppression system (this cost close to $4,000 by itself), cooking equipment, and labor for our building assistant’s.

Through current sales, along with personal finances we’ve raised enough to purchase our cargo trailer and some of our beginning building materials so we can begin the journey of building our own food trailer.

However, what we’ve raised so far is enough to complete construction. Therefore, after much contemplation, my wife and I have concluded that seeking help from our community and customers, who’ve shown us much love and support over the past year, is the best way to raise completion funds.

Our GoFundMe will go on for 65 days, from now until mid- June. Hopefully in those 65 days we’ll be able to reach our goal of $7,000. ALL SIZE DONATIONS MATTER! Rather its $1.00 or $1,000 dollars. And once our new food trailer is complete, we’ll have a crew and donor party, with all our current menu and new items included.

In closing, I cannot thank you enough for your love, support, and help you’ve given us so far, and appreciate any help you may be able to give during our campaign.

LOVE AND RESPECT