Food enthusiasts are hoping to improve the diversity of Ottawa’s street food with an online petition. So far, the petition has more than 600 signatures, but hopes to garner 2,000.
In a city rich with cultural diversity and skilled culinary chefs, are French fries and hamburgers the best Ottawa can do on the streets?
Food enthusiasts think not.
They have launched an online petition aimed at increasing the number of street vendors and providing more diverse, vibrant and local food options.
With more than 600 signatures, the petition is on its way to the goal of 2,000. When that target is reached, it will be brought to the attention of city hall in the hopes of transforming Ottawa’s current street food scene.
Currently, permits for new street vendors are almost impossible to obtain. Licenses aren’t transferrable and the city isn’t issuing any new permits.
“People on the streets have had licenses since 1994 or before and so there is no room for change or improvement in the way it’s laid out right now,” says Jacqueline Jolliffe, chef and owner of Stone Soup Foodworks.
Her food truck specializes in organic and local soups, salads and tacos at the University of Ottawa campus on Marie Curie Drive.
Until recently, Ontario only allowed items that were pre-cooked and prepared beforehand to be sold from mobile food vehicles in the hopes of decreasing food borne illness. This restriction limited menu options as hot dogs and burgers became staples of nearly every vendor’s menu.
“Ottawa’s current street food situation is next to non-existent. It’s basically limited to chip wagons,” says Chin.
In 2007, Ontario changed its regulations and placed street food options under the jurisdiction of the municipal Medical Officers of Health, which allowed decisions about street food to be made on a local level.
However, the opportunity to enhance street food was never taken and the situation continues to remain the same. Current regulations “doesn’t use street food to its full potential,” says Jolliffe.
Jolliffe says there are not a lot of vendors that offer local and healthy food, and feels that Ottawa isn’t living up to its full street food potential.
She says she hopes that the petition will start a discussion and bring a variety of street food to Ottawa.
“I would like a focus on sustainability; I want something that is fresh, healthy, sustainable and tasty.”
Chin says that Ottawa has a responsibility to bring better food to its streets.
“Being the nation’s capital, people have to be creative with their food,” he says.
“Food trucks not only inspire taste buds but it gives a city a cultural identity. I think someone should capitalize on the idea of food trucks and show that Ottawa is not only the nation’s capital for politics but it can be the nation’s capital for food as well, ‘cause in the end, everyone’s got to eat.”