Latino food truck owners are feeling the brunt of a recent curfew, call on elected officials for a compromise

A 2024 bill restricting many food trucks from operating between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. is negatively affecting the bottom line of business owners—and the city’s economy.

By Jensen Toussaint. May 4, 2025.

Food truck owned and operated by Edward Bonilla. (Jensen Toussaint / Inti Media)

Philadelphia’s food truck community adds a layer of vibrancy, diversity, and culture that helps make the city so unique. 

With more than 300 food trucks across the city, the community plays an integral role in not only feeding city residents of all walks of life, but also as a source of economic growth and job gains. 

However, a recent Philadelphia City Council ordinance is disallowing certain food trucks from operating between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Since the order has been implemented, several Philadelphia food truck operators have shared concerns about the impact the curfew is having on their businesses. 

How did we get here?

In January 2024, Councilwoman Quetcy Lozada of the 7th District introduced a new bill that would impose an 11 p.m. curfew on food trucks, takeout restaurants, and corner stores in Kensington. The businesses were also mandated to remain closed until no later than 6 a.m.

At the time, the Councilwoman highlighted the effort as being one of the ways she would look to address Kensington’s open-air drug trade and criminal activity. 

“The goal is to ensure that whatever we can remove from that particular footprint that contributes to nuisance activity and that interferes with quality of life in the Kensington community that we start to address it now,” Lozada said after the public hearing introducing the bill.

The ordinance began as a trial that included food trucks, takeout restaurants, and corner stores within the area bounded by East Lehigh and Kensington Avenues, D and East Tioga Streets, and Frankford Avenue. This area covers more than 100 businesses; however, about two dozen would be affected by the ordinance. The ordinance excluded bars or other establishments with liquor licenses. 

About a month after its introduction, the City Council Committee on Licenses and Inspections approved the legislation. 

As part of the legislation, a $500 fine would have to be administered for each infraction.

“We're excited about bringing some structure back into that business corridor and giving some relief to the residents that live above some of those businesses who are impacted by the activity,” Lozada said in a 2024 interview with Kensington Voice. 

City Council unanimously passed the bill, which was ultimately signed into law by Mayor Cherelle Parker in April 2024.

Affected business owners speak out 

Damaso Rodriguez, CEO of the Food Truck Association, speaking with Gabriela Watson-Burkett, founder of Inti Media. (Jensen Toussaint / Inti Media)

While the curfew has been in effect since last spring, its enforcement started to ramp up as of October 2024. The radius of impacted food trucks and businesses has also expanded further throughout North Philadelphia. 

For businesses that must adhere to the curfew, it has had a detrimental impact.

Edward Bonilla, who has operated three food trucks in the 7th District since 2021, told Inti Media that he has seen a 75% decrease in sales since the curfew was implemented.

In response, he and a group of several other food truck owners who are feeling the negative effects of the curfew started an online petition to bring more awareness to the challenges the ordinance has brought. It also urges increased dialogue and change about the ordinance.

As of this writing, 253 individuals have signed their names to the petition. 

Efforts eventually led to the creation of a nonprofit—the Food Truck Association—which officially reached nonprofit status on April 10, 2025.

Damaso Rodriguez, CEO of the Food Truck Association, said the nonprofit serves as a way to amplify the voices of the entrepreneurs and workers being affected by this curfew. 

“Because [during] the nighttime, that’s when they make more money, and now they’re suffering,” Damaso added.

In response, Lozada told NBC10 that food truck permits state that the trucks are not supposed to operate for 24 hours or after midnight.

With regards to her reasoning for introducing the curfew in the first place—to help decrease crime and increase quality of life—she highlighted that the curfew has had a positive impact.

"When the bill fully went into effect, which was in October, we saw a drastic decrease in crime," Lozada said.

While the business owners are in agreement that crime and quality of life can be improved within the neighborhoods where they work, they are united on another point.

“We are not part of the problem [the nuisance activity] …We are helping to address the problem,” said Ramon Mesquita, another longtime food truck owner and member of the Latino Food Truck Association.

Currently, the Latino Food Truck Association includes about 20 members. 

As the curfew continues to be in effect, the nonprofit is working on creating a commissary at a recently developed space in Hunting Park.

“We’re trying to build a commissary so they can come over here and have storage for the food, and they can also come and clean the trucks, so everything can be in accordance with the city,” Rodriguez added. 

The side of Enerolisa Feliz’s food truck. (Jensen Toussaint / Inti Media)

Where things stand now

One of the initial concerns Latino Food Truck Association members had was the lack of transparency leading up to the passage of the ordinance.  

“The law had passed without the due process of a proper hearing to include them,” said Jimmy Duran, a longtime Philadelphia small business advocate and consultant for the Latino Food Truck Association. “Others may have been involved, but this group was not.” 

Moving forward, business owners hope that the curfew can be reversed or a compromise can be made, considering the negative impact it is having on the food truck owners’ financial gains. 

“We’ve got to understand that the city of Philadelphia is a major city and there’s life that happens after [11 o’clock or midnight],” said Frankie Medrano, a community activist, advocate, and director of community outreach for the Dominican Grocers Association.

“We need to ensure that these people are able to work because all they want to do is sell food,” he added. 

The $500 fine that comes with each infraction is now just one part of the problem these food trucks are facing. 

In a more recent development, several North Philadelphia food trucks have been towed. This is part of a joint task force operation between the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, the Philadelphia Police Department, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, and PECO.

According to NBC10, tickets were issued for all food trucks, which were towed due to “creating hazardous conditions,” “blocking a sidewalk,” or, in one’s case, being “unregistered.”

A majority of the impacted vehicles are Latino-owned food trucks. 

The Latino Food Truck Association’s Instagram account released a statement regarding the towed food trucks.

“This was a direct attack on food diversity, our businesses, and our culture,” the post read. “We call on city officials—and especially City Council—to stand with us and help resolve this injustice.”

This post is part of a larger call to action for city officials to find alternatives toward addressing the public safety and quality of life in Kensington and other parts of North Philadelphia, such as increasing police presence, extending to curfew to 1 a.m., and creating a Latino food truck park to help boost the local economy and community safety.