Help Vegan Van Find a New Home
Donation protected
It’s hard to even begin writing this. Even harder knowing that we are here to ask for help. But nothing compares to the difficulty of thinking about losing our business.
The City of Denver has informed us that we are no longer allowed to serve our community in the beautiful Skyland neighborhood on 28th & Steele Street. According to them, we are parked in a single family dwelling zone where food trucks aren’t allowed to park and serve. This is after we have parked and served at this location for almost two and a half years. Its devastating to our business, our staff and our customers.
We’ve have worked tirelessly since the pandemic hit to keep our business afloat. And that’s all we’ve managed to do. At this point, we’re not even on a life raft yet, we’re still flailing around in the water. It’s been difficult. From constant complete burnout to mental and physical health crises. Eventually, what was built from love and passion began to run off of anger and fear. It’s been a journey, the road less traveled during the pandemic. And now that we are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, some stability, we have to adjust again. But we cannot go back to the way it was before. Traveling from brewery to brewery and picking up catering and special events in between… it just isn’t going to work anymore. It’s not consistent or sustainable for us.
We’ve run through every scenario on our heads. We’ve laughed and cried a lot and mostly come to terms with all of the possible different outcomes of our predicament. So here we are, again, asking for help. We need to find a new home. We’re natives, our roots are planted here. We want to continue be a part of our beautiful community. We want more stability and we want consistency. For you and for us. And of course, we want to be here for you. For your weddings, and your birthdays, and your family dinners. We’re sick of saying I’m sorry, we want to say YOU’RE WELCOME, WE LOVE YOU and ITS SO VERY WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU. We know that could mean we need to say goodbye to the trucks and we’re okay with that.
We’re asking for donations to help us get into a set location, a home. Our options right now are limited and we have narrowed it down to four that could work.
1. Find a place to park the trailer & truck and serve. Maybe it’s a parking lot, maybe it’s a coffee shop? We don’t know. But it would have to be close to our commissary kitchen on 40th & Colorado because we would still have to work out of this kitchen like we do now. It is not reasonable or sustainable for us to be far from our commissary. With limited space in the trailer & truck, we use this kitchen to make all of our seitans and sauces. We also use it to store food, wash dishes and dump oil, compost, trash and recycle. This would likely be lowest cost option and it’s basically what we are doing now. This is our last resort option as we are tired of having to work out of a space that is separate from our service kitchen. Loading & unloading, going back and forth many times per day and of course, sharing a space with other chefs who cook animal products is not ideal.
2. Find a used kitchen space or an empty space to turn into our own kitchen. In this scenario we would prep in the larger unshared kitchen and serve out of our trucks that are parked on site. This option would likely be much more costly but it could turn into something amazing. Having immediate access to a larger kitchen space would allow us to offer a bigger menu and we since we’d be able to prep anytime we wanted, we could keep our menu available more consistently. There is also a potential to support other vegan businesses by allowing them to share our kitchen with us.
3. Brick and Mortar. Most expensive option. In this scenario, we’d move into a space with a full kitchen and seating. We’d hope to have enough funds to keep one truck for catering and special events and we’d sell the other to help cover the costs of opening the Brick and Mortar and paying down our debts. It seems like a no brainer but we just don’t have the funds. And this would take A LOT of funds.
4. CLOSE THE BUSINESS. Sell everything. Try to get out of debt. Take care of our employees. Move on. This is a real possibility right now and it scares the hell out of us. But it’s an option and we have to consider that it could end up being our only choice.
We know you probably have questions, suggestions and reassuring words for us right now. Please reach out, we are here and we will do our best to respond to everyone. We love you all and we hope you know how much you mean to us. Whatever happens, this has been a life changing experience that will stay with us forever. Please share and donate if you can. We will keep you updated as we start looking for locations and continue exploring our options.
Vegan Van
The City of Denver has informed us that we are no longer allowed to serve our community in the beautiful Skyland neighborhood on 28th & Steele Street. According to them, we are parked in a single family dwelling zone where food trucks aren’t allowed to park and serve. This is after we have parked and served at this location for almost two and a half years. Its devastating to our business, our staff and our customers.
We’ve have worked tirelessly since the pandemic hit to keep our business afloat. And that’s all we’ve managed to do. At this point, we’re not even on a life raft yet, we’re still flailing around in the water. It’s been difficult. From constant complete burnout to mental and physical health crises. Eventually, what was built from love and passion began to run off of anger and fear. It’s been a journey, the road less traveled during the pandemic. And now that we are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, some stability, we have to adjust again. But we cannot go back to the way it was before. Traveling from brewery to brewery and picking up catering and special events in between… it just isn’t going to work anymore. It’s not consistent or sustainable for us.
We’ve run through every scenario on our heads. We’ve laughed and cried a lot and mostly come to terms with all of the possible different outcomes of our predicament. So here we are, again, asking for help. We need to find a new home. We’re natives, our roots are planted here. We want to continue be a part of our beautiful community. We want more stability and we want consistency. For you and for us. And of course, we want to be here for you. For your weddings, and your birthdays, and your family dinners. We’re sick of saying I’m sorry, we want to say YOU’RE WELCOME, WE LOVE YOU and ITS SO VERY WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU. We know that could mean we need to say goodbye to the trucks and we’re okay with that.
We’re asking for donations to help us get into a set location, a home. Our options right now are limited and we have narrowed it down to four that could work.
1. Find a place to park the trailer & truck and serve. Maybe it’s a parking lot, maybe it’s a coffee shop? We don’t know. But it would have to be close to our commissary kitchen on 40th & Colorado because we would still have to work out of this kitchen like we do now. It is not reasonable or sustainable for us to be far from our commissary. With limited space in the trailer & truck, we use this kitchen to make all of our seitans and sauces. We also use it to store food, wash dishes and dump oil, compost, trash and recycle. This would likely be lowest cost option and it’s basically what we are doing now. This is our last resort option as we are tired of having to work out of a space that is separate from our service kitchen. Loading & unloading, going back and forth many times per day and of course, sharing a space with other chefs who cook animal products is not ideal.
2. Find a used kitchen space or an empty space to turn into our own kitchen. In this scenario we would prep in the larger unshared kitchen and serve out of our trucks that are parked on site. This option would likely be much more costly but it could turn into something amazing. Having immediate access to a larger kitchen space would allow us to offer a bigger menu and we since we’d be able to prep anytime we wanted, we could keep our menu available more consistently. There is also a potential to support other vegan businesses by allowing them to share our kitchen with us.
3. Brick and Mortar. Most expensive option. In this scenario, we’d move into a space with a full kitchen and seating. We’d hope to have enough funds to keep one truck for catering and special events and we’d sell the other to help cover the costs of opening the Brick and Mortar and paying down our debts. It seems like a no brainer but we just don’t have the funds. And this would take A LOT of funds.
4. CLOSE THE BUSINESS. Sell everything. Try to get out of debt. Take care of our employees. Move on. This is a real possibility right now and it scares the hell out of us. But it’s an option and we have to consider that it could end up being our only choice.
We know you probably have questions, suggestions and reassuring words for us right now. Please reach out, we are here and we will do our best to respond to everyone. We love you all and we hope you know how much you mean to us. Whatever happens, this has been a life changing experience that will stay with us forever. Please share and donate if you can. We will keep you updated as we start looking for locations and continue exploring our options.
Vegan Van
Organizer
Brittney Gurule
Organizer
Denver, CO