After falling in love with the atmosphere and food, we recently sponsored Food Truck Friday at the Gilbert Food Truck Food Court by paying the vendor fees for all of the trucks for a night. After the event, we spoke with our customer, Casey Stechnij from Udder Delights, who shared some insights about food truck events and why they’ve chosen us for their banking needs.
Building community
The food truck scene is thriving because they’ve built something special. The food is excellent, but it’s really about creating connections between people. There’s local entertainment, and the seating is set up community style to encourage conversation. Casey said that people have thanked him for setting up the tables like that, saying things like, “I met my neighbor of 15 years who I never met before, we shared a conversation over a hotdog.” Casey chose to bank at Gateway for many of the same reasons we wanted to sponsor the food truck event. “We team up and work with people who believe what we believe and who care about family, I believe Gateway is that kind of a bank. I wanted to support a bank who supports me and my community.”
We’re all in this together
Things like being able to eat sinfully good, locally produced ice cream and attend fun events like food truck Friday are part of what makes our community special. We’re proud to be part of making these events possible in whatever way we can. Because as Casey points out, small businesses need a thriving, supportive community to succeed. “One thing I’ve learned after having been a dairy farmer my whole life, and especially since we started the Gilbert food truck events, is that as a small business you need response from the community. You can’t go at it alone.”
We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves.
