Tigerton hosts Food Truck Rally

Tigerton residents were provided with a mid-afternoon treat on June 5.

Community members fought the 90-degree weather to partake in a block party, where Tigerton Main Street organized an event where five food trucks were provided for lunch and dinner.

The food truck rally originally started last year as a response to the financial struggles suffered after community events were forced to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials organized the event once again this year, after seeing success last year. At the food truck rally, five trucks lined up along Zion Road next to Zion Lutheran Church. The options for food that were provided were The Dough Shoppe, Rolleaz, Smokehouse BBQ, Grilligans and Hillbilly Bob’s Bar BQ. The BBQ trucks were among the most popular, but with nontraditional options, like The Dough Shoppe, which specializes in cookie dough, visitors were treated with a variety of options.

Former resident Jason Breaker brought his daughter to Tigerton to visit his parents and to experience the food truck rally. Breaker bought a BBQ pork sandwich from Hillbilly Bob’s Bar BQ to share with his daughter Hazel.

“We are in town visiting my parents,” said Breaker. “We wanted to stop on down and support this community event and get some lunch.”

Breaker added that having a community event like the food truck rally allows community members to get outside and visit with each other, as well as provide variety in people’s weeks.

“The event maybe brings some new people in,” said Breaker. “It also brings in some new ideas and it is a change of pace for dinner and lunch options for a weekend.”

Along with food trucks, Tigerton Main Street offered visitors a rock wall, a bouncy house, a beer tent and an area to play games like beanbags.

Tigerton Main Street Treasurer Trisha Hoffman said that the food truck rally was held in order to get community members to enjoy a hot Saturday.

“We held this event today to give Tigerton residents an opportunity for something to do today,” said Hoffman.

Tigerton Main Street Director Andrea Graham added that it was also an opportunity to bring people into the community from out of town.

The event was held on Labor Day weekend in 2020, and with this year’s event occurring in early June, Graham is hopeful for what this event can become in the future.

“We want to hold this event twice a year,” said Graham. “We would like to do it now in June and then one time in fall.”

Similar to Breaker, Graham and Hoffman said that holding a food truck rally serves as an opportunity to bring people together, especially after some people have been isolated from one another during the pandemic. Hoffman also said that events like the food truck rally are used to help raise money for the community.

“This is just something for our community to do,” said Graham. “It is a way to bring a group of people together.”

“Tigerton Main Street focuses on giving all of our money back to the community,” added Hoffman. “Anything that we raise stays in Tigerton, helps our businesses, helps fund fireworks and helps fund other events that we have around town.”

According to Graham, the mission of Tigerton Main Street is to revitalize downtown Tigerton, and hosting a food truck rally is one of the events that can contribute to that revitalization.

“Our mission is to revitalize the downtown,” said Graham. “Right now we are doing a painting project downtown and we do signage for businesses, so we try to keep that money for downtown projects.”

Graham and Hoffman said that they have only heard positive reactions from those attending the food truck rally.

“I have not heard anything negative,” said Graham.

“I think a lot of people are still learning what a food truck rally is,” added Hoffman. “It is defiantly something new and out-of-the-box in our area, so visitors seem to be liking it.”

They added that more people were in attendance at last year food truck rally, due to the fact of the weather as well as other events going on in Shawano County in early June.

“Considering the heat, today has been good,” said Graham.

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com