I’m writing to invite you and/or your students to participate in La Cocina’s second annual National Street Food Conference (and third annual Street Food Festival, if you feel so inclined) in San Francisco on August 20th-22nd.

La Cocina is a ground-breaking business incubator designed to reduce the obstacles that often prevent low-income food entrepreneurs from creating successful and sustainable small businesses. By providing affordable, shared, commercial kitchen space, an array of industry-specific technical assistance and services, and access to market opportunities, La Cocina works with entrepreneurs as they launch, grow, and formalize successful food businesses. Our vision is that our program participants will become economically self-sufficient and contribute to a vibrant and diverse economy doing what they love to do.

It’s exciting, and the food will be delicious. The conference, held bayside at the Fort Mason Center, will kick-off with a brunch on Sunday hosted by Top Chef Masters contestant Suvir Saran, followed by two panels conversing over street food in all its’ glory. The topic for Monday panels will be street food culture: including the food and people who make it, policy and legislation, the economics of street food, and small business incubation. It is intended to be an open forum for ideas, and exchange between vendors, consumers, regulators and dreamers, and, hopefully, a place where change can be set in motion to create more viable options for low-income vendors.

Not only is this an incredible opportunity to learn and interact with the whole gamut of street food folks; you’ll get to taste some pretty incredible food. Conference and festival info can be found here; and I’ve created a discount code for you to use to make this more affordable! Enter “icartstreetfood” in the discount code box to get 50% any ticket price; and feel free to pass that along to family/friends. http://sfstreetfoodconference.eventbrite.com/

If you have any questions about the Street Food Conference or about La Cocina, please contact Julie_L_Lindsey@yahoo.com.