RI Cancels State Park Food Truck Events - UPDATED

RI Cancels State Park Food Truck Events - UPDATED

The organizers of food truck nights at Colt and Goddard State Parks are saying that the State of Rhode Island this week rescinded its approval for events this summer.

And fans of the food trucks are not too pleased. 

“We had a great night at Colt State Park in Bristol,” said PVD Food Truck Events this week. “But, we also received word from RI State Parks and [the] Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management that due to the popularity of our events at Colt State Park that they are canceling our future events.”

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

“We hope this decision is not final.  Please have your voice be heard. You can [leave a comment on our page] or contact RI State Parks and Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management directly,” PVD Food Truck Events continued. 

Reaction — And Explanation

In April, PVD Food Truck Events organizers touted the return of a full season of offerings, following the pandemic.

The decision by the state this week to cancel what had been six more weeks of scheduled events was not well received by food truck followers. 

“This is is ridiculous,” wrote one Facebook user on the food trucks page. “What about every other event that has ever been held at parks?”

“What about ‘community gatherings’ is wrong in community spaces?” said another Facebook user. “I will send a letter. They work for us, after all. Don’t they?”

Last October, PVD Food Truck Events received support from the state through a $75,000 “Take It Outside” grant from Rhode Island Commerce to help food trucks during the pandemic. 

The funds were to expand into December by providing individual food truck owners with tools and assets that could be used for street service or to participate in collective events later into the season.

Now, the state is pulling the plug on what was supposed to be six more events at the two state parks. 

PVD Food Truck Events shared the rationale they received from DEM. 

"The DEM’s Division of Parks and Recreation has decided to suspend PVD Food Truck Events / FoodTrucksIn’s events at RI state parks this summer due to the increasing impact on park staff, facilities and regular park users," DEM told event organizers.

"These extremely popular events draw large crowds from across the region. The additional pressure on parking areas and open space during the height of the park season is placing a strain on normal operations," DEM continued. 

PVD Food Truck Events, which has over 38,000 people who follow the page, did not respond to request for comment on Thursday. 

RI DEM did not respond to request for comment on the decision. 

Food Trucks Appeal to State

On Friday, PVD Food Trucks Events organizer Eric Weiner responded to GoLocal with the following comment. 

At the moment we are focused on our next scheduled event on June 9th at Goddard State Park.  

We have 12-14 food trucks scheduled to attend.  Each are locally owned small businesses and they are relying on that revenue that cannot be easily replaced.  We also have contracted a local Warwick band that had their last event with us rained out.  

We are still hopeful that DEM can come up with a reasonable solution so that we can continue at Goddard and Colt. In the meantime we are also actively looking for alternate locations close to the originally scheduled events so that the community looking forward to attending our free events does not miss out.

We were thrilled to produce during the state's Take It Outside campaign at Colt State Park last year.  These events were well received by everyone.  The events that we are producing this year are made up of the same components and are expecting the same size crowds.  We are looking forward to coming up with a solution to maintain the previously scheduled events.

Original story published Friday June 4 7:05 AM

Updated Friday June 4 10:15 AM