Food trucks gathered at Carnival Cinemas in Red Deer over the Mother's Day weekend for the start of a summer-long weekly Food Truck Drive Thru set-up. (Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Not fast food, good food served quickly

A big hit: drive-thru food truck event could go all summer

May 15, 2020 | 10:02 AM

The local food truck community is hoping it can continue being a staple of everyone’s summer in Red Deer, despite the ongoing pandemic.

Over the Mother’s Day weekend, a small group of them — four to be exact — got together in the parking lot at Carnival Cinemas for a Saturday and Sunday Food Truck Drive Thru.

Malcolm Galenzoski, owner of Mal’s Diner, says he and hopefully a larger number of trucks will be out again all three days of the coming long weekend, and then every weekend through the warm months.

“The first weekend was beyond what we could’ve imagined. We didn’t know what to expect, and had we come up with projections, it would’ve been far more than what we’d guessed,” says the long-time Red Deerian, noting they had 100 vehicles in the first hour of their Saturday 12-8 p.m. shift alone.

“I heard certain comments, and other staff and security heard comments that it was tremendous, and a very positive environment.”

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Galenzoski says many food truck operators could go out of business if someone doesn’t find a way this summer to get sales going for them. He says if the event does succeed, it’ll be because of passion of many owners and operators.

“There isn’t, from what we’ve seen, a dog eat dog mentality, meaning we can work together,” he says. “If we can make a living from this, terrific, but from owners I talk to and how we operate our trucks, we just want to provide quality food to people.”

The drive-thru works exactly how it sounds; there’s no getting out of your vehicle.

Galenzoski is asking patrons to be patient, as he and others pitching in are working to improve signage and potentially incorporate a mobile app so customers can order ahead of time.

He also notes that his truck in particular is working on sourcing its meat from a local butcher or farmer due to the reported meat shortages caused by shutdowns at processing plants.

“We’ve been reaching out to every truck we can think of because we want to include as many as we possibly can and as the site will allow.”

All AHS public health regulations are being followed, notes Galenzoski, and there is communication with the organizers of Red Deer’s Food Truck Friday, another summer event that happens in the Carnival Cinemas parking lot, but which typically includes a seating area.

Food Truck Friday organizers tell rdnewsNOW their current event model does not meet requirements set out by government in order to protect guests, and they’re looking at other unique ways to reach customers this summer.

For more on Food Truck Drive Thru RD, you can visit its Facebook page. It goes this Saturday (12-7), Sunday (12-6) and Monday (12-6).