ANDERSON, Calif. -- In 2022 Emily Hawke took over ownership of the decades-old sandwich shop, Subarama, now she is asking the city to make an ordinance so she can keep the legacy alive in Anderson.
Financial struggles led to the closure of Subarama in Anderson back in October, but the hardest part for Emily to deal with was laying off her loyal employees.
"There is no food truck ordinance in Anderson and the commercial ordinance, the way it stands disallows any operations of business to be outside the actual building," said Hawke. "What they're not taking into consideration is a food truck is its own essential business and building and right now they're disallowing an entire avenue of businesses to be able to be in Anderson."
Hawke said that after she had to close down Subarama in Anderson, she got things in order, like a city license, health permit, insurance and even permission from a private property owner to park in the correct commercial zoning area so she could keep her employees and clientele happy, but she's not been able to do so as of yet because of the restrictions in Anderson.
She reached out to city leaders asking for an allowance or ordinance permitting food trucks as she believes it's unfair a sector of business is not allowed to operate in the city.
"Losing everything we have built up over the last several years is very disheartening and very sad. The longer it takes for them to come up with an ordinance the harder it's going to be to build back that customer base and keep people employed. I don't have enough space in this one brick and mortar to keep all those extra employees employed and so without having a food truck there we were forced to lay off people which I really didn't want to do," said Hawke
Hawke said she doesn't believe it's the city leader's intention to cut off that sector of business and from what she understands they are open to working with her.
We reached out to Anderson city manager Joey Forseth-Deshais who did not want to go on camera but did give us this statement.
"Past practice has been to help protect our brick-and-mortar store front business to operate within the city, we've only allowed the true independent food trucks to operate as an attachment for the auxiliary purpose of a special event," Forseth-Deshais.
Forseth-Deshais said that he is willing to do a food truck ordinance but that it's still early on in the process and would have to be taken up in front of the city council.
He also mentioned that no allowances or exceptions will be made for Subarama to operate their food truck before an ordinance is put into place.
Hawke encourages people to support small businesses and wants to remind the community that Subarama is still open in Redding, and you can see their food truck making stops around the city.