Fredericton’s Veg Out Is Hitting The Road With A Vegan Food Truck
FREDERICTON – Shelby Harnish and her partner Patrick Stewart are taking their vegan donairs on the road with a new food truck this month with the help of more than $2,000 in an Indiegogo campaign.
Veg Out, which opened a stall at The Cultural Market last year, will go on the road shortly after an inspection is done on their food truck on May 1. It’s scheduled to cater its first event at Boyce Farmers’ Market in Fredericton May 13.
“Our goal from the beginning was to [open a food] truck. But we wanted to test the waters first with the stall to just see how our food would be received in this area because Fredericton is definitely a smaller city than Halifax or others where veganism is really well received,” Harnish said.
“I think that food trucks right now, especially in Fredericton, are really popular and they just pair really well with breweries, which are always busy. I just think it’s something trendy that’s going on and we wanted to be involved because we are young and want to be in that scene.”
The food truck will have more menu items than what Veg Out currently serves at the market, which includes donairs, shawarmas, breakfast sandwiches and “chicken” caesar wraps. Harnish and Stewart plan on adding kebabs, souvlaki, chilli cheese dogs, a dessert and a bowl for dogs, as well.
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The food truck will mainly be at breweries and night markets in Fredericton, and hopefully, the Boyce Farmers’ Market as well, Harnish said. Veg Out will have a kick-off party at Grimross June 1 and is already booked for some dates at Graystone.
“[Breweries] will be the main place that you can find us through the summer because it’s going to keep our costs low but it’s also where people are in the summer,” she said.
The couple sought to raise $10,000 through Indiegogo because their truck, which they bought in Ontario. It broke down on the drive back to New Brunswick, costing them around $9,500. They had to fly back to Fredericton, pay for shipping costs on the truck and carry out extensive repairs, many were later done by Stewart himself to save costs.
“It’s been through a lot but it has come very far. We’ve put so much work into it. Patrick has seriously been at that truck 12 hour days every single day, just doing all of the work himself – except for things that he can’t do, we did have to take it to the garage,” he said.
They didn’t reach their goal through the fundraising campaign, but Harnish said it won’t hinder them from launching the truck.
“This goal was to cover [the cost of] what has happened,” said Harnish. “It’s not going to be the end of the world if we don’t reach our goal, but at the same time, any money helps right now because we are getting very tight. We funded everything ourselves and we didn’t want to go for a loan this far into it if we could really make it without having to do that.”
Harnish and Stewart started their business to give more options for vegans who want to eat out. In addition to serving food they consider more ethical, the couple also tries to run their business in a more environmentally friendly way by avoiding most disposable takeout containers, buying supplies without disposable packaging and locally.
In the future, Veg Out wants to reach other parts of New Brunswick and beyond. It also plans to keep the stall at The Cultural Market open.
“We don’t want to lose the customers that go there consistently,” Harnish said. “So it’s really just going to depend on funding and how the food truck goes the first month or so to decide whether we can actually afford to stay at that market or maybe at another one.”