Poised for its 11th year,
the Springfield Rotary Gourmet Food Truck Competition has established a proven recipe. The popular annual tradition, scheduled for August 16 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Veterans Park, will offer at least one tweak this year, but the main ingredients remain mostly the same.
“I guess you would say the secret sauce hasn’t changed much,” Eddie Bell, a past Rotary president who’s been closely involved with the event since its inception says. “If you have an event that has live entertainment, good food, beverages, in a really cool park setting in the summer months, that tends to draw people. So that portion of it has kind of stayed the same.”
New this year is a partnership with Crafts for a Cause, which brings about 20 spaces for artisan arts-and-craft vendors to offer their wares. Those will range from home décor and seasonal items to hand-crafted jewelry and creative specialty finds.
“These are high-end,” Bell says. “It’s not going to be trinket, souvenir-type stuff. It’s going to be great quality.”
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Event organizers estimate attendance falls between 5,000 and 10,000 people It’s fitting, perhaps, that organizers would keep the list of arts-and-crafts vendors tight. After all, they don’t allow just anybody with a food truck to compete in the event. There’s an application to be submitted, as well as a vetting process for any food-truck businesses that wish to compete.
The selected competitors represent a wide range of cuisines, from American comfort food such as barbecue to African, Filipino, German, Greek, Mexican, Hawaiian, and Mediterranean fare. Up to 30 trucks will compete for prizes, including a $5,000 award to the overall winner, $2,500 to the runner-up, and a $1,500 third-place prize, which are selected by a panel of celebrity judges. The panel typically consists of local chefs and food critics, and in the past has also included Food Network personnel.
There’s also a “People’s Choice” award with a prize of $1,000, for which attendees can vote via a
mobile app. The event’s app uses geo-tracking, ensuring that only event attendees can enter a vote, and eliminating the chance of ballot-stuffing by outsiders who might be tempted to tip the scales for their favorite food truck.
And although the event presents a way for the community to partake in live music, a craft show,a beer garden, and more, it remains what it started as: a true competition.
Last year’s overall winner, Dine-in Hawaiian, is expected to be there to defend its title. Finalists for the awards are gathered around 4:30 p.m. and brought to the stage, Bell says, and anticipation among competitors builds palpably. Winners are revealed shortly after.
“You can see, when the winners are announced, the excitement on their faces,” Bell explains. “And you can hear some disappointment that they don’t get selected. They are very much into the competition aspect of it.”
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Schmidt's Sausage Truck at the 2024 Gourmet Food Truck CompetitionCompetitors in the past have come from as far away as Maryland, Bell adds, but mostly consist of food trucks from Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Because the event is free, there’s not a great tracking measure for the number of attendees, but it’s estimated that, in recent years, between 5,000 and 10,000 show up.
Bells explains that it’s been a solid fundraising event for the Rotary Club, generating about $300,000 over the years, which is reinvested into the community. Last year, the club was able to provide a $25,000 donation to the
Jefferson Street Oasis Garden, enabling that organization to provide food for an entire year via a canning operation that reduced reliance on perishable harvested products.
“I think the growth of the sponsorship and the awareness has certainly helped us from the fundraising side, which, in return, has helped us distribute money back out to the various causes,” he says.
Attendees can
make donations to help support Springfield Rotary’s causes online and in person during the event. A beer garden open throughout the event will feature craft beer from Springfield’s Mother Stewart’s Brewery, Michelob Ultra, Bud Light, and White Claw. Water and a selection of soda will also be available.
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Customers order from Forking Pierogi's at the 2024 Rotary Gourmet Food Truck Competition.The event has not been without its outside challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on things in 2020, and dates have been moved around before and since. Bell recalls scheduling it once in September, and the Rotary Club brought in a Jumbotron-style screen when Ohio State played Oregon to accommodate Buckeyes fans.
Mid-August seems to have been settled upon as the sweet spot, schedule-wise, during Springfield’s vibrant summer months. As always has been the case, though, the competition remains a rain-or-shine event.
“Shine,” Bell emphasizes,” is always better than rain.”
For complete details and updates about participating food trucks, entertainment schedule, competition and more, visit
their website,
Facebook page, or download the
Springfield Food Truck mobile app for Android and Apple devices.