MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WTVF) — Daniel Yarzagaray-Modjeska began his food truck business Chivanada in 2018. He recalled growing up making empanadas with his family.
"My family's Colombian, empanadas were basically Sunday brunch for us, right?" He said.
Now he enjoys sharing them with the community.
"They're street food, they're easy, they're fast and everyone knows what they are," he said.
To see his food truck at work, watch the player above.
Yarzagaray-Modjeska recalls serving his empanadas to communities in Mt. Juliet following the 2020 tornados and pandemic.
"They wanted to keep people in their neighborhoods, right? And one of the ways to do that was to bring food trucks in," he said. "It had been successful in other cities and for 90 days Mt. Juliet lifted their very heavy restrictions on food trucks so we can go and serve people."
But a new city ordinance is forcing food trucks out, according to the Beacon Center. They filed a lawsuit on behalf of three food truck operators, including Yarzagaray-Modjeska.
"Beacon is known for representing Tennesseans free of charge when their constitutional rights are violated, and that's precisely what's happening here," said Director of Legal Affairs for the Beacon Center of Tennessee, Wen Fa.
Under the ordinance, city-based food trucks must pay $100 a year for a permit, while out-of-city food trucks must pay $100 a day.
"But with this $100 a day fee it boxes us out because if we go to serve there and we do say $500, $600 for a shift — that's the whole margin," said Yarzagaray-Modjeska. "We don't make a dollar, right?"
"I think it's completely unethical and immoral for government to treat individuals differently, to discriminate against individuals just because they come from a different city in the same region," said Fa.
Yarzagaray-Modjeska said its an ordinance that hurts not only businesses like his, but residents in the community.
"We don't compete with the local restaurants," he said. "We are not taking business from them and we are just providing an additional alternative for the people of Mt. Juliet to have other options to eat from."
NewsChannel 5 reached out to Mt. Juliet, but a representative said the city does not comment on pending litigation.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
