Food truck season is back in Jackson! Call your friends, get your bikes ready and clear your dinner plans on Mondays and Thursdays.
For the next 12 weeks from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 on Mondays, rotating food trucks will be serving dinner at May Park in East Jackson. On Thursdays, the event will be held at the same time at Munger View Park near Melody Ranch on the south end of South Park Loop Road. The event series is called Grazing Rights.
Jackson resident Matt Donovan was inspired to kickstart the food truck events soon after Coronavirus began to affect the valley, shutting down restaurants and subsequently forcing eateries to remove tables and seats for social distancing. With an incredibly busy summer in 2020, Donovan began channeling his energy into increasing dining access and options for locals.
Donovan said his main priorities for finding a public park to host the food trucks were to ensure it happened somewhere at a sufficient distance from downtown commerce areas and other restaurants, and somewhere with high residential density. He eventually pitched the idea to Town Council and they approved his request to purchase and hold the permit as a host for the food trucks.
Last summer, Donovan ran a pilot program in his Cottonwood neighborhood, greenlighted by the HOA. Donovan found that when only one food truck was present, they became overwhelmed by the turnout.
He is now working on booking two different food trucks for each night this summer. Some of the local trucks planned include Spoons Bistro, Street Tacos, Pinky G’s, Sagebrush Grille and Chompers, a new food truck run by two people with ties to The Bird. Donovan has said that they plan to invite some trucks from out of town as well.
The local non-profit Friends of Pathways has generously offered to co-sponsor the events and biking or walking is encouraged.
“It truly means the world when you find others that share your vision,” Donovan said.
