The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting for Food Truck Fridays at the county courthouse on Friday, May 5. Pictured are Chamber staff and ambassadors. Photo by Jackie Gorski, Times-Union.

By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WARSAW — The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting for Food Truck Fridays at the county courthouse on Friday, May 5.

Food Truck Fridays is a monthly event that Main Street Warsaw is organizing. Up until this year, First Fridays were held on the first Friday of each month. It was decided to change that and move First Friday to Third Friday, but still have something happen on the first Friday of the month, which is now Food Truck Fridays.

First Friday was moved to Third Friday because of the conflicts that arose with the first Friday of the month like holidays and graduations, Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker said. Third Fridays will be in partnership with the Parks Department’s concert series, he said.

Main Street Warsaw is offering Food Truck Fridays because people may still go downtown on the first Friday of the month looking for something to do, Parker said. They wanted it to be something low-key, “but something very awesome” with food trucks around the courthouse square.

The vision of Main Street Warsaw is to bring a vibrant, entertaining downtown atmosphere, Parker said.

Food Truck Fridays is open to whoever wants to be there, he said, whether it’s independent food trucks or food trucks associated with a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Parker said they want to get organized where food trucks tell them what times they want to be at the courthouse square and the goal is for the event to be an all-day thing.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Parker said. He said Main Street Warsaw will see how much community support it gets and, hopefully, they can grow.

Currently, there are four or five food trucks that have indicated they’re very interested in participating in the event.

Parker talked about the potential benefits of Food Truck Fridays.

“I believe every time you have more options in downtown, you get people walking and moving, it creates more business. It creates a live atmosphere that people want to be part of. Crowds follow crowds. If we can have a whole bunch of people downtown, that’s great for anybody in the downtown,” he said.

If anyone is interested in participating in Food Truck Fridays, they can call the Chamber at (574) 267-6311, ext. 6.

There are some permits through the city and health department required to operate a food truck, but most people operating a food truck already have that permit. Parker suggested food truck operators should check with the city to make sure they have the proper permit.