The Flinthills Mall will host its second annual food truck rally this weekend to introduce the community to different food trucks while also helping people to get out and about after being stuck inside for so long.
The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday in the mall parking lot, located at 1632 Industrial Rd.
Eight food trucks are confirmed to attend the event: Gustoso, Simonelli’s Mobile Kitchen, Poppin 4 U 2 Kettle Corn, Lazy Butt BBQ, Mis Antojitos, Grab’N’Go Hotdogs, JD’s Wood Fired Pizza, and the Flint Hills Technical College’s Fusion.
The trucks will be lined up along Industrial Road so that people can see them as they are driving by and come to grab a quick meal.
“Because we have the trucks lined up along Industrial Road, people will see them and come and get their favorite food trucks,” said Heather Siebert, the organizer for this event. “They can try each of the food trucks if they would like, or they can just come for one.”
While the event technically ends at 2 p.m., the mall is allowing the food trucks to stay later if they would like. The event is a rain-or-shine event, so if it is raining during the allotted time, the food trucks will still be at the mall.
Siebert has been working with the different food trucks to put together this event for the community after the mall hosted Foodapalooza last fall. In Foodapalooza, a competition was part of the event where different food trucks were awarded the People’s Choice and the Judge’s Choice awards. For the spring, Siebert is creating a more relaxed environment with no competitions, hoping to just bring the community together to enjoy good food.
“What we’re trying to do is just get something for the community to look forward to,” Siebert said. “We’ve all been cooped up inside for fourteen months but the weather is getting beautiful. We want to bring everybody out, mingle with one another, and just remind people what we used to do before COVID started, right?”
Siebert plans to continue this event for years to come, in every fall and spring.
“We are planning on doing this twice a year, every spring and every fall,” Siebert said. “The fall will be the Foodapalooza competition, and the spring is just your run-of-the-mill food truck rally. We have some really high expectations and we hope to see as many people as we can.”