Rotary food truck festival opens today

The Rotary International Food Truck Festival is set to take place today at the Scout Association Ground on Woolford Avenue, Georgetown, bringing together a range of dishes representing different cuisines.
The festival will give patrons an opportunity to sample flavours from across the world, with participating food trucks serving an assortment of dishes at the event.
This publication spoke with Service Chair of the Rotary Club of Georgetown Central, Michelle Howard, who outlined the activities planned for the festival and the community-focused mission behind the event.
Michelle Howard is a Guyanese-Canadian re-migrant entrepreneur, chef, and business owner based in Georgetown, Guyana.
The event which is capped only at $1500 will run throughout the day, with patrons encouraged to arrive by 11:00h.
A highlight of the festival will be a food competition in which vendors will be judged on the presentation of their booths and trucks, hygiene standards, food temperatures and overall appearance. The winner will receive the first-ever Rotary International Food Truck Festival Champion trophy.
Howard explained that the international food offerings were a major feature of the event, with the idea stemming from her and her husband’s love of food and their experiences living in Toronto.
She explained that the idea for the food truck festival came from the club’s fundraising chair, Keon Howard, who was inspired by similar events he had seen in Toronto and wanted to introduce the concept in Guyana.
“My husband and I, we’re foodies. We lived in Toronto, and as you step out of your door, you have 96 different cultures, so we’re always going everywhere. Everybody knows [my husband and I] are always [trying out] restaurants, [finding out that] this food tastes good, that food tastes good… But it’s because we really love food, and Guyana is such, you know, Guyana is literally becoming a melting pot.”
She noted that Spanish and Cuban dishes would also be featured, adding that Guyana’s growing cultural diversity makes it an ideal place to bring a variety of international cuisines together in one event.
“We also have Spanish and Cuban food also on the roster. So I think it’s because we are lovers of food, and we wanted to bring it all together, and we’ve seen it executed in Toronto, and we’re like, why can’t that happen here? Because Guyana really is a melting pot of all these different cultures.”
According to Howard, the festival will feature a variety of international cuisines, including Indian, Chinese, Italian and Jamaican dishes, among others. Food vendors without trucks have also been invited to participate, while children will have access to games and other activities.
The festival will feature eye testing and other health checks, including blood pressure and blood sugar testing, conducted by the Ministry of Health, which will also distribute vouchers.
This culinary event is primarily aimed at fundraising for the club’s community service projects that they undertake through the year.
The Rotary Club of Georgetown Central undertakes several community-based initiatives, including Youth in Action, which provides mentorship and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people aged 16 to 25, and iExcel, which equips boys at the Juvenile Holding Centre with computers and a 12-week course in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Through its Brick-by-Brick initiative, the club assists single mothers in completing and furnishing homes for themselves and their children. Meanwhile the Club also undertakes annual Christmas activities include distributing care packages and hosting Christmas carols at four elderly homes in Georgetown, as well as providing food hampers to underprivileged families through its Hampers for the Holidays project.
To top it off, the club is also working on Connect.Care.Grow, an initiative focused on constructing a mental health and meditation platform in the National Park.