C.O. food trucks surge adds to inspectors’ backlog

The food truck business is booming in Deschutes County. As NewsChannel 21 learned, the growing new dining experience has county health officials adding more help and seeking a fee hike to help cover the added expense.

In the last five years, officials say the number of food trucks in Deschutes County has nearly doubled. There were 107 mobile food units in 2014. Now there are 210.

Officials saw a spike in mobile food unit plan reviews as well. In the last year, there was a 79 percent jump in food truck proposals.

“It’s just simpler,” Johnny Mehas, the owner of Greek Street Catering at The Lot in Bend, said Monday. “The menu is simpler. We have an eight-item menu. I think anything more in a food truck than eight items, things start to be convoluted. You’re confusing.”

The first-ever food truck “pod” in Deschutes County was introduced in 2013. T hat’s the term health officials use to describe a lot with two or more mobile food units. N ow, officials estimate there are 13 food pods, with more on the way.

“I think they’re popular because people want to go out and have drinks with each other, but people can’t always agree on what type of food they want,” said Eric Kramer, co-owner of the On Tap pod in Bend. “So it really just offers a lot of different options.”

The food trucks’ surge in popularity has forced health officials to work at what they’re calling a “breakneck” pace.

Eric Mone, the Deschutes County Environmental Health supervisor, said field inspectors are now doing up to five food-related inspections per day.

“Mobile food units has just been one area of growth,” Mone said. “With the population increasing in Deschutes County, we’ve had more child cares, more restaurants, more water systems, more food trucks. We were able to get someone else on to do more inspections to cover more of our public health work.”

As a result, officials estimate the Deschutes County Environmental Health Services program will have a deficit of nearly $60,000 by the end of the 2019 fiscal year.

Officials will ask county commissioners for a 12 percent fee hike to balance the budget on Wednesday.

They asked for the same thing in June 2018, but commissioners did not approve.

Mone said he hopes the commissioners have a change of heart this time around.

H e noted that one in six people in the country get foodborne illness every year. Mone said public health officials can prevent most of those illnesses from happening, but they need a balanced budget to do so.