LA spends $2.8 million on free food carts, and not everyone is happy

LA gives away carts to street vendors

Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles launched a joint program in January 2026 to hand out more than 280 free food carts to sidewalk vendors. The program costs $2.8 million in total.

Of the 281 carts, 180 go to vendors in unincorporated county areas and 101 go to vendors inside the city. Four cart types are available: hot-holding, cold-holding, cut-fruit, and integrated grill.

Who can apply for a free cart

To qualify, applicants must be at least 18 years old, live in LA County, and work as self-employed sidewalk vendors. Annual vending income must stay under $75,000.

Vendors also need to operate within unincorporated LA County or the city of LA and commit to following all public health and safety rules.

Before getting a cart, recipients must first lock in all required permits, including a Compact Mobile Food Operation certificate and a Sidewalk Vending Registration Certificate.

Fee waivers make it easier to start

The program also cuts permit costs. The $604 Sidewalk Vending Registration Certificate fee gets waived for the first two years.

In the third year, vendors pay just $100. Those who need a Compact Mobile Food Operation permit, which normally runs between $126 and $592 a year, may get a 75% fee subsidy. Applications are reviewed monthly.

Officials prioritize vendors by compliance readiness and location in high-need areas, then use a lottery to select recipients.

Where the $2.8 million comes from

The program taps a mix of federal and local dollars.

Federal American Rescue Plan Act funds make up part of the budget, with the county and city adding their own allocations. The money covers cart manufacturing, permitting support, and community-based technical assistance.

Three separate Board of Supervisors motions, in November 2021, October 2023, and September 2024, set the program in motion. Supervisors Hilda Solis and Holly Mitchell led those efforts.

California’s long road to legal street vending

Street vending was not always legal in California.

Before 2018, vendors faced fines of $100 to $500 and could have their carts taken away by flatbed trucks.

That changed when California decriminalized sidewalk vending statewide through Senate Bill 946, the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act.

Then in 2022, Senate Bill 972 created a new permit category that reduced requirements for carts not cooking raw meat.

LA County adopted its own Sidewalk Vending Ordinance in February 2024, which took effect in August 2024, giving vendors in unincorporated areas a formal legal path to operate.

A chef says the rules are not equal

Chef Andrew Gruel, who founded the Slapfish seafood chain and now serves on the Huntington Beach City Council, says the program creates two different sets of rules.

Gruel told the New York Post that brick-and-mortar restaurants face strict zoning, health, and wage requirements while vendors get government-funded carts. He said he is not pushing for a crackdown on vendors.

What he wants, he said, is equal treatment.

Gruel suggested that if the government gives millions to food cart operators, it should give equal support to the restaurants competing alongside them.

Gruel knows both sides of the food truck debate

Gruel launched Slapfish in 2011 as a food truck in Orange County, California, then grew it into a fast-casual chain with locations across multiple states before selling his stake to Mac Haik Enterprises in 2022.

He said he pulled his LA operations after the city increased regulations and taxes on food trucks.

He also co-hosts The SoCal Restaurant Show on AM 830 and appears regularly on national news programs, giving him a platform to keep the conversation going.

California restaurants are already stretched thin

The cart debate lands during a rough stretch for California’s restaurant industry. The statewide minimum wage rose to $16.90 per hour in January 2026, with fast-food workers earning $20 per hour.

Restaurants across the state are also dealing with higher food costs tied to tariffs and inflation, rising rents, and climbing labor bills. San Diego alone saw several long-established restaurants close in the past year.

The California Restaurant Association has said this is one of the worst stretches for restaurant survival since the Great Depression.

County officials defend the program

County officials say the program is built for low-income entrepreneurs who cannot cover new permitting costs on their own.

LA County Board Chair Hilda Solis said many vendors are dealing with increased pressure from federal immigration enforcement and called the program a way to support small business growth and economic stability for working families.

Street vendor advocates add that vendors often include seniors, single parents, undocumented individuals, and formerly incarcerated people with few other work options.

Advocates also point to research suggesting street food customers and restaurant customers are largely different groups, meaning vendors may not directly cut into restaurant business.

Long Beach tried this, and it stalled

A similar program in Long Beach ran into serious problems. The city put $429,500 toward up to 40 free carts for eligible street vendors.

More than a year and a half later, only 11 carts had been handed out. The city council later cut about $200,000 from the program after participation stayed low.

Vendors who did get carts reported waiting roughly eight months and said the carts, which weigh close to 800 pounds, were hard to move and not practical for daily use.

The debate in LA is far from settled

The LA County program stays open for applications, with carts going out as they are manufactured. Vendors who get a cart still need to finish the full permitting process before they can legally operate.

The bigger question, how to support street vendors without burdening brick-and-mortar restaurants, keeps building across Los Angeles and the rest of California.

Whether this program avoids the low-turnout problems that hit Long Beach will likely depend on how easy it is for vendors to clear the permitting hurdles.

Both sides see a system that needs fixing

Street vending has been part of Los Angeles for more than a century, and the rules around it keep shifting.

Supporters of the cart program say it pulls vendors into the legal economy and makes street food safer for everyone.

Critics like Gruel argue the government picks winners when it subsidizes one type of food business while piling regulations on another.

Both sides do agree on one thing: the way Los Angeles regulates food businesses is not working equally for everyone right now.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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