Why does Kamloops love food trucks so much?

KAMLOOPS — Last week brought us one of those stories that would be absolutely laughable to visitors looking at Kamloops from anywhere else. 

Hundreds and hundreds of people went all the way out to an open field near the airport simply to eat food prepared not in a restaurant or on an outdoor barbecue, but in a tin can on wheels. 

Food truck operators, so taken for granted elsewhere in the world, were treated like rock stars at a charity event meant to raise money for the Kamloops Therapeutic Riding Association. 

It seems ludicrous that something as simple and hum drum as food trucks would cause such a stir. 

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But this is Kamloops after all, the place trapped between big city and extremely small town.

The reason why people went nuts and will continue to go nuts over food trucks isn’t because the culinary offerings are particularly fine. 

Making food inside a ’78 Ford doesn’t exactly lend itself to traditional French cuisine, after all. 

Kamloops residents love the idea of food trucks because they offer a taste of metropolitan living right here in our little ol’ Tournament Capital. 

It’s just the slimmest possible taste, perhaps, but it’s enough to leave you with the idea that Kamloops has something cool; that our city has people who appreciate cool, and other people who want to partake in that alongside us.

For the same reason, shoppers pine for new franchise stores and restaurants to come here.

It’s not because those franchises will really offer anything new to the market.

People crave those familiar corporate names because they give us some sense of worth, like we can offer something in line with cities like Vancouver or Calgary, or even Kelowna.

The City of Kamloops should ease away from the protectionism that has led to such restrictive by-laws around the food truck industry.

If it does, seeing food trucks won’t be such a novelty that hundreds are forced to flock to the farthest reach of the community just to catch a glimpse.