![[Press Release] FanFood Brings Rotational Food Truck Service to Chicago Residences](https://www.fanfoodapp.com/wp-content/uploads/old-blogs/february/food%20truck%20collage.png?width=1152&name=food%20truck%20collage.png)
Flash Taco Food Truck outside Cityfront Place.
August 2020, CHICAGO — Chicago-based contactless online and mobile ordering company, FanFood, is joining forces with Food Truck Community to start a unique rotational food truck service that brings food trucks straight to residential and corporate buildings. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for people to explore local food options and challenging for F&B and hospitality businesses to survive. According to the Independent Restaurant Coalition, about 85% of independent restaurants may go out of business due to the pandemic. FanFood’s mission is to help local businesses stay open with contactless pickup, curbside or delivery options, while letting them keep 100% of their tips and revenue. In its latest efforts, FanFood partners with Food Truck Community, which works with management companies to bring unique food options to residential and corporate properties. Tenants can pre-order on FanFood’s web app or downloadable app from a variety of Chicago food trucks and restaurants from the comfort of their homes. They will receive their orders via contactless pickup when the food trucks arrive at their building according to a predetermined schedule. This allows customers to access local favorites in a safe and convenient way, while allowing food trucks to better manage their inventory and prepare orders beforehand. “The rotational food truck service is bridging the gap between residents who can’t leave their homes and businesses struggling with thin margins due to rising costs,” said FanFood co-founder and CEO Carson Goodale. “It’s truly a win-win partnership on every level.”
So far, the joint initiative has dozens of food trucks and residential buildings within the Chicago network, bringing food truck service straight to the tenants and revenue to the businesses. Participating food trucks and restaurants get to keep their revenue and tips, as FanFood only takes a 12.5 percent per order in the form of a convenience fee passed on to the consumers. Buildings that sign up for the service will also receive 10 percent of FanFood’s revenue share by promoting the service to their tenants.
The rotational food truck service debuted with Flash Taco serving the Cityfront Place Apartments in River North. The rollout was a huge success and through pre-orders alone, Flash Taco was able to break even. Several residents even placed multiple orders during the time while the truck was parked downstairs.
Recently joining the network was Manny’s Deli, a Chicago staple and crowd favorite. Since the pandemic, the restaurant has found it difficult to stay afloat, taking to social media to ask for support and joining the food truck service.
“We’re doing anything and everything to keep going,” said Dan Raskin, owner of Manny’s Deli. “And we think by being able to serve an entire building all at once, we will not only generate more orders, but also operate in a more efficient way.”
FanFood is also operating in dozens of other markets, including drive-in theaters, stadiums, hotels and even shopping malls. Despite the pandemic and against all odds, some of FanFood partners — such as Showboat Drive-In — were able to increase staff hourly wage by $2 to $3 thanks to larger order volume, bigger basket size and higher in-app tips.
Not only is FanFood helping businesses, it’s helping give back to the community, too. For every order placed on FanFood, FanFood has already given away ~50,000 meals to food banks nationwide since the start of the pandemic through its partnership with Feeding America.
Currently, the Community is scheduling rotations for neighborhoods all across Chicagoland. After uniting with FanFood, this initiative will continue to operate on a much larger scale by expanding to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Arizona and more.