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Tulsa’s food-truck inspector on her growing brood

When Kendra Wise talks about Tulsa’s 100 or so mobile food vendors, her voice takes on a maternal tone. She is the Special Event Coordinator for The Tulsa Health Department, and she is responsible for regulating the operation of all Tulsa full-service mobile food vending operations according to health department standards, from pushcarts to food trucks. She shows up when it’s all in full swing, whether it’s a midweek lunch or in the middle of the night. “I don’t know how I would do my job without Facebook,” Wise said, a nod to the juggling act she faces with trucks’ locations and schedules, all of them in constant flux. 

It’s Wise’s job to check boxes and run down requirements lists, like a mother takes a headcount, while the rest of the city goes about the business of celebrating—in fact, that’s her favorite part of the job, “that I get to be outside at the events with all the craziness,” she said. Wise is busiest during the Tulsa State Fair and spring and summer festivals season; now, with the popularity of alternative dining at a peak, her department is growing. “The volume of new people calling me and new events starting is the biggest challenge of my job,” she said. 

Inspectors visit each truck four times each year, posting their findings on the Health Department’s website, at tulsa-health.org. All food-service establishments in Tulsa County require a license that must be renewed annually, and that includes mobile food vending operations. 

Wise didn’t know that her degrees in Environmental Science and Plant and Soil Science would lead to a career regulating the consumption of food in unusual places. She approaches her job like a scientist, but she also likes to think of herself as a guardian of the connection between the businesses she inspects and the public she’s charged to protect. “I love helping people get their business started,” Wise said. Inspections are routine but spontaneous, and she gets right in the middle of a tiny truck during service to make sure those inside follow code. Crucial violations result in immediate close until the owner can prove that the violation has been cleared. “Simple menus and small spaces make quick work of inspections,” Wise said. 

Hungarian physiologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi said, “water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium.” Our planet exists because of water. So does the standard food truck in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you don’t have clean water, you don’t have a business.
A ten-gallon tank of durable construction is required, and without that, a license can’t be granted. Clean, fresh water means hands can be washed and dishes can be sanitized, cornerstones of healthy food service. “The big challenge is water because they could run out during a shift and the public wouldn’t know,” Wise said. 

A relationship with a dedicated commissary is the first requirement to earning a permit to sell edibles from a mobile source. If a mobile food vendor doesn’t have an approved location to properly dispose of the water used during a shift, he or she can’t operate. 

“Most of these vendors are familiar with the industry, so they have food safety knowledge,” she said, “but they are owners instead of hourly staff or managers.” The implication is that the people who are actually making the food are highly invested, experienced, and educated in properly handling food. “This is how they feed their families, so they are more than happy to follow rules and work with me to solve problems,” Wise said. 

Wise’s picture hangs inside the Airstream that houses Lola’s Gypsy Caravan, operated by Lola Palazzo and her daughter, Wren. “She’s a treasure,” Palazzo said. “She really is concerned with the well being and health of the public because she’s an environmentalist.”

Allison's dishes

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