HELP SAVE OUR FOOD CART POD

Hi Friends,

Allow us to introduce ourselves, we are the Eats on Albina food cart pod and we need your help to stay alive! 

WHO WE ARE:

Rico’s Burritos: the original truck located in our pod, Rico’s has been a staple in our neighborhood for over 10 years serving delicious handmade Mexican food by owner operators Sam and Isabel as well as their children. In the morning you can find a line of hungry breakfast burrito devotees waiting their turn to order.

Kabba’s Kitchen: named by Eater one of Portland’s most outstanding food carts, Kabba’s is one of the few places in Portland serving West African food and her recipes are beloved by all who try them. You can literally taste the love that goes into her Yassa and Mafe Yapp.

Sweet Lorraine’s: easily the cutest food cart in the pod, owners Aaron and Rachel are keeping the Jewish dairy restaurant tradition alive and well in Portland with their amazing homestyle Latkes, Knish, homemade Challah and other New York style Jewish comfort foods.

Honey Butter Country Fare: Catering to Portlanders and beyond with dietary allergies, Brie and Neal offer your classic fair food favorites year round including corn dogs, funnel cakes, and more. Their batters are 100% gluten, dairy, and nut free but you wouldn’t know it. On any given day you’ll hear people around the pod exclaiming, “that was the best corn dog I’ve ever had!”

We are all owner operated businesses that have poured our hearts, minds, time and money into doing what we love and serving our community. It isn’t easy work but we truly love what we do and can’t think of a better community to be a part of. We wouldn’t be here without your ongoing support and we are asking for your help to stay alive.

WHAT’S HAPPENING:

We were notified by the city of Portland last week that our food cart pod will have to make some very costly upgrades in order to meet new code requirements by January 2023. This notification came out of the blue and we were given very little time to comply. With our businesses already facing rising costs of ingredients, winter season drops in customer traffic and impending health license renewals this couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Our pod is independently owned by two small business owner/operators who are an integral part of our community. They have generously offered to take out a very large loan to make these extremely costly upgrades that will allow us to stay. Unfortunately this will result in an over 50% increase to our rent effective in January. This increase will help offset increased utility costs and part of the financial burden of the very costly upgrades incurred by our landlords. 

We are thankful for their support and without  them fronting this money we wouldn’t have a place to stay. Unfortunately the increase in rent may be too costly for all of us to continue to operate, especially this time of year. On top of the increase in rent we will need to be closed for a period of time during construction, further hurting our financial situation. It will also cost us to move our trucks temporarily while the lot is excavated. These costly financial burdens may result in some of us having to close permanently. 

WHAT WE NEED:

We are trying to raise $20,000 to help cover the major increase to our rent and utilities and lost sales while we are closed for construction as well as the costs associated with moving our trucks temporarily during excavation of the lot. The amount raised will be split equally amongst the four businesses in hope of getting us all through this difficult time. 

No amount is too small and we believe in the power and strength of community to help get these funds raised. You can also help by reposting and sharing our story with your friends. Likewise if you know anyone who can help us raise funds from a non-profit or other organization please send them our way. You can also show your support by making us your breakfast or lunch spot in the coming weeks and months. We’d love to see you! 

Thanks for reading! We love y’all and can’t thank you enough for your ongoing support. 

- Eats on Albina