USA: Food trucks on the National Mall being pushed

If one District of Columbia official has her way, the city’s wildly popular food trucks could find a place on the National Mall.

Harriet Tregoning, D.C.’s Director of Planning, wants the National Park Service to make changes to its regulations to allow food trucks to park and serve customers near the Mall.

“I would encourage them…to give visitors more variety and more flexibility,” said Tregoning.

One D.C. official wants food trucks like these to be able to do business closer to the National Mall. (Photo: Mark Segraves)

It’s currently slim pickings on the National Mall. One can either hit up a museum or a hot dog stand.

Tregoning is proposing having an entire pavilion of food trucks lined up on Seventh Street during lunchtime hours to give visitors a choice.

“[The food trucks] would be refreshing,” said D.C. resident Meredith Mark. “It would actually provide a consistent customer base for the food trucks and people on the Mall.”

For many people, food trucks are part of a daily routine.

“Every day of the week, there’s a different selection of food trucks,” said D.C. resident Tore Dyvik. “Monday through Friday you can choose Korean, you can choose halal.”

But for some vendors who serve nearly 300 customers a day in downtown D.C., they are not so sure there will be a consistent client base at the Mall.

“To be able to make any money we have to make it through a whole lot of customers who get in at a certain time and get off at a certain time,” said vendor Dion Reen. “We have a long line and then it’s gone.”

Current National Park Service regulations prohibit financial transactions on Park Service property. So far, they were not shooting down the concept, but it was not immediately known when a decision would be made.