![](../images/for_pdf/1110-01501.jpg) | | Image provided | | | | | | Orindans will soon be able to enjoy a weekly food truck event involving seven food trucks from Taste of the World from 5 to 9 p.m. each Thursday Aug. 5 through Oct. 19 in front of the Orinda Community Center.
The trucks will include a dessert truck and a beer and wine truck, with the remaining five rotating among TOW's other available trucks. TOW has trucks of its own and contracts with 80 other food trucks. In addition to food, the event will include live music on a stage in front of the fountain on the library plaza and games in the plaza. There will be portable seating for 24 in the plaza in addition to existing seating there and in Orinda Community Park. The aim is to provide a family-friendly activity in downtown Orinda.
The food truck idea is enthusiastically supported by What's Up Downtown Orinda. At the July 5 Orinda City Council meeting Vice Mayor Amy Worth especially thanked Trudi Loscotoff for her efforts in contacting Taste of the World to bring them to Orinda. All members of the city council seemed enthusiastic about the idea of the food truck event; their only concern appeared to be deciding on the best night for the event in order to assure its success. TOW began in Martinez and now does events in several East Bay cities including Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Concord and at the Richmond Kaiser Permanente facility.
Two managers will be present at each food truck event and the area will be thoroughly cleaned by TOW staff at the end of the event. TOW donates 10 percent of its profits to the Monument Crisis Center, and offered to donate to a different organization if preferred, but city council members said that they support the work done by the crisis center.
TOW's slogan is "Taste international, support local," and the organization stated it is willing to partner with local establishments as well, which may ease concerns expressed by the executive director of the Orinda Chamber of Commerce, Sophie Braccini, who wrote to the city council hoping that the event won't be done at the expense of existing businesses.
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