The Street Vendor Project

After years of trying, the City of New York finally put in place a ban, this January, on single-use styrofoam. Which makes sense — nearly 60 million pounds of styrofoam get thrown away each year, clogging landfills and harming wildlife.

Vendors, who often serve their food in styrofoam clamshells, generally want  to be more green. As vendor Mohammed Sarkar said, “at the end of the day, its better for my business, and the planet.” But they must be notified about the change! The Department of Sanitation sent more than 130,000 mailers to businesses warning them of the new rules, and attendant fines, but they forgot to tell vendors! With vendors, enforcement without education is often the city’s approach. That is wrong. Still, SVP is doing our best with our limited resources to help vendors implement this change.

Attention Food Vendors! SVP has recently obtained preliminary approval of a class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 300 vendors whose vending carts and other property was seized and then discarded by New York City enforcement agents. Vendors who are part of the class will be receiving notices by mail and are eligible for between $585 and $1000 to reimburse them for their discarded property.

For further information about the settlement please go here.

With street vendors, one pattern is clear: people often render them nameless. Even some of the most famous vendors (i.e. “the Dosa Man“, aka Thiru Kumar and “the Arepa Lady”, aka Maria Piedad Cano) are described primarily by what they sell, not who they are. Some vendors eventually give in, turning their anonymity into a brand, as the Halal Guys have done with great effect. Others are given these arguably demeaning/endearing monikers (“Cart Lady” ?? ) despite their best efforts to develop their own business brands, as happened here to SVP member Fauzia Abdur-Rahman, proprieter of Heavenly Delights.

Sure, some vendors can do a better job of marketing. But so too do customers need to start asking vendors their names. We appreciate that this time, at least, the NY Times got it right by proudly naming and sharing the stories of two hard-working vendors in the Bronx — Angelica and Antonio. Not so hard, now, is it?

Vendors need training just as much, if not more, than other small businesses. SVP, with our large membership, our partnerships, and our expertise in vendor issues, is uniquely situated to provide that training. Which is why we teamed up this year with Queens EDC to apply for Competition THRIVE, a NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) program that “seeks to develop innovative strategies and programs that help immigrant entrepreneurs succeed in business.” We proposed a program called Street Vendor Academy, which became a finalist!

With a $25,000 seed grant, we recruited fifteen art vendors from Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan in a six-session training program that covered technology, financial planning, customer service, marketing, product mix/sourcing, and location/regulations. The sessions, conducted in the Tibetan language at CHHAYA in Jackson Heights, Queens, were a big success. Some of the vendors, like Senge Pasang (above left) opened bank accounts for the first time and began accepting credit cards at their mobile locations. In January, we’ll compete for the grand prize, so wish us luck!

UPDATE: Congrats to SoBro! While we did not win the $100,000 grand prize, we are seeking funding to support this work in the future.

Once, long before Whole Foods and even Gristedes, New York City was home to dozens of thriving public markets where people did their daily and weekly shopping. Sadly, over the years, the number of these markets has dwindled to just four — at Essex Street, Arthur Avenue, Moore Street, and La Marqueta, in East Harlem. While today we can order all our food online, people still yearn for the market experience. Smorgasburg, Hester Street Fair, LIC Flea, and other successful examples have proven that much. We want delicious, authentic food and we want to meet the people who make it.

Thus came about our new venture. With the massive help of Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, we created Vendy Plaza, an outdoor, covered food market at La Marqueta, one of the city’s most storied public spaces. We hope this idea, which we will be trying out each Sunday in November, will become a neighborhood gathering spot and an incubation space where new food entrepreneurs – from E. Harlem and across the city — can get their start. Stay tuned!