Quality of Life 20/08/06

Millyard Museum on a mission
The Manchester Historic Association has announced that it plans to restore and display the “Sweaters” portion of the illuminated Pandora Sweater Factory sign, which read “Home of Pandora Sweaters” and was on top of the Pandora Mill building at 88 Commerical St. for about half a century, according to a press release. Although the Pandora piece of the sign is beyond repair, Manchester Historic Association Executive Director John Clayton said in the release that restoring even a portion of the sign “is a tribute to both Pandora Industries and Manchester’s historic textile industry.” When the sign was removed from the building in the early 2000s, some of the letters disappeared, but one of those missing letters was recently returned, allowing the Historic Association to move forward with the restoration. But the “E” and the “S” are still needed to complete the sign, and the Association is asking for the public’s help in locating them.
Score: 0 (+1 for the Historic Association’s efforts, -1 for the missing letters)
Comment: The Millyard Museum hopes to have the sign on display by the end of the year, according to the release, and is asking that if anyone has any questions or information about the missing letters, they call the museum at 622-7531.

Learn about our lakes
Help keep New Hampshire’s 1,000 lakes safe with NH Lakes’s latest free webinar series, which starts with “Managing Recreational Safety on New Hampshire’s Lakes” on Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 7 p.m. New Hampshire Marine Patrol will explain basic boating laws and safety and tell you what to do if you see something unsafe out on the lake, according to a press release from NH Lakes. On Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m., the webinar “The Ecology of New Hampshire’s Lakes” will cover how our lakes formed and how they change throughout the seasons, plus stories of some of the strange things people have reported seeing in the state’s lakes. And on Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 7 p.m., “The Ecology & Management of Plants in New Hampshire’s Lakes” will cover how to recognize what’s growing and blooming and how to recognize invasive plants.
Score: +1
Comment: Registration is free but required at nhlakes.org.

Big losses in employer-provided health insurance
New Hampshire ranks fifth in the country for the number of people who lost health insurance from February through May, according to data compiled by Zippia, a resource site for job seekers. The numbers for this time period were compared to the 2018 uninsured rate, which is the most recent data available, according to Zippia, and the results do not include dependents who lost insurance. According to the data, New Hampshire saw a 43-percent increase in uninsured adults.
Score: -1
Comment: The state with the highest number of people who lost health insurance is Massachusetts, followed by Hawaii, Rhode Island and Michigan.

SWAM strong
Individuals, groups and swim teams around the state held small events throughout July as part of the Virtual SWAM20 event to benefit Swim With A Mission, a veterans support organization in New Hampshire. According to a press release, groups like The Granite State Penguins Masters Swim Club, The Seacoast Sharks Youth Girls Swim Team, The Manchester Police K-9 Unit and members of the Navy SEALS, have held their own events in lieu of the usual annual event at Newfound Lake. The Granite State Penguins Masters Swim Team, for example, met at Big Island Pond in Hampstead for a 10K team relay race. The Manchester Police K-9 Unit competed in a 5K relay race at Baboosic Lake in Merrimack.
Score: +1
Comment: The event honors the 89 New Hampshire service members who died during the war on terrorism, according to the press release.

QOL score: 50
Net change: +1
QOL this week: 51
What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at [email protected].

NBA bubble thoughts

Let’s take a look at the first week of action as the NBA got restarted a week ago.

Even though he did hit the game winner, I got it sorta right last week saying the Paul George-Kawhi Leonard defensive duo would give LeBron issues when the Lakers and Clippers play. But while he had just 16 points, I neglected to mention how they’d stop Anthony Davis, who killed them with 34.

I’m with Giannis Antetokounmpo in the feud with James Harden. And not just because the loathsome Harden doesn’t even try on defense, flops on every shot and whines when he doesn’t get the call. It’s his sour grapes for the Freak deservedly winning the MVP award over him a year ago.

The prize for the dumbest thing said on TV all weekend goes to ABC announcers Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy praising Mike D’Antoni for not “overreacting” after Harden picked up his third foul six minutes into the first half. With Jackson you expect it, but Van Gundy? Brad Stevens leaves guys in with three first-half fouls all the time and it makes me crazy because it almost always leads to one of two things, both bad: losing aggressiveness on offense and especially defense to avoid getting No. 4, or they quickly get their fourth. Like Jaylen Brown did in the season opener vs. Philly and was useless for the rest of the game. Predictably Harden got his on a break breakaway at 3:36. That forced the coach to waste his challenge trying to overturn a blatant push-off, because, as Jackson incredibly said, you can’t let stars get four fouls in the first half. Right, Mark.

The single worst example of that kind of coaching malpractice came in the 1983 NCAA Final when towel-chewing Houston coach Guy Lewis left Clyde Drexler in after picking up his third midway through the first half. I’m sitting there yelling take him out when after the glide goes airborne two plays later Terry Gannon cleverly grabs the back of his thighs to make the contact more forceful. Boom — number four! Houston never got back into rhythm after that, leading to the Jimmy Valvano “I need someone to hug” moment after Lorenzo Charles dunked Dereck Whittenburg’s never-came-close 35-footer to give NC State the 54-52 upset win.

Don’t agree with Marcus Smart that Antetokounmpo didn’t get called for the charge/block on Friday because he’d have fouled out. But what I do object to is overturning the charge part when they went to see if his foot was out of the circle on replay. They shouldn’t be able to do that because if they’re going to use replay on every bang-bang charge it’ll turn things into an endless baseball game. Plus that semi-circle thing under the basket is just dumb. The only thing it does is make it impossible to make that call, because you can’t focus on whether the upper body is moving and whether the feet are out of the circle. So for once I don’t blame the refs, because it’s optically impossible to do both.

However, two possessions earlier Antetokounmpo jabbed Daniel Theis hard enough in the stomach to make him double over, and no call. It was inadvertent, but so what? How they could not call blatant contact like that is beyond belief, especially since they looked at it on replay to see if there was intent. And, oh, by the way, if they make the right call, the Freak’s not in the game for the Smart block/charge that led to the decisive six-point swing that gave Milwaukee the game.

Interesting that Robert Williams got DNP’s in the C’s first two games. Should we read anything into that?

Also interesting was hearing that Kevin Garnett is a lead investor in a group trying to buy the Timberwolves. Though, given KG’s recent public animosity toward outgoing owner Glen Taylor and that Vikings owner Zygi Wilf leads a competing group it seems like, ah, a long shot.

If you missed it, Doc Rivers moved past Red Auerbach into 11th place all-time in NBA wins. It surprised me the once all-time leader is now that far back in the pack.

Nice night by Indiana’s T. J. Warren going for 53 vs. Philly, but it’s also basketball inflation. Those of us who saw Pete Maravich play know that without threes it’s the meager 44 Pistol got back in the day despite throwing all the bombs he regularly buried.

The final Nets/Kyrie tally is in. The overachieving 42-40 bunch of last year were 8-12 in the games Kyrie Irving played for them and were 24-22 when he didn’t. Talk stats and “skills” all you want, but winning is what defines how great someone really is.

But give him his props for putting his money where his mouth by pledging $1.5 million to replace the salary lost by any WNBA player who opts out of their season over coronavirus.

If anyone still wants to know why they take so many threes in the NBA, look no further than Boston shooting a once unimaginable 60 percent on three-point shots Sunday vs. Portland. That produced 48 points on 30 shots and to do that with two-point shots you’ve got to shoot 80 percent. Not even Villanova did that as they upset mighty Georgetown in the 1985 Final during the greatest shooting game in NCAA history.

He didn’t get into that game, but it was nice seeing local lad Wenyen Gabriel in uniform for the Blazers.

The NBA gets points for negating the sterile surroundings of the bubble by creating a TV set with fake crowds and buzzing fan noise. It actually works, especially with pictures of folks like Paul Pierce and Jayson Tatum’s little guy Deuce blended into the virtual crowd like The Beatles did on the Sgt. Pepper’s album

I know, dating myself. But the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Bandalbum had, after, all the greatest album cover ever, didn’t it?

News & Notes 20/08/06

Covid-19 updateAs of July 27As of August 3
Total cases statewide6,4416,660
Total current infections statewide407395
Total deaths statewide409417
New cases211 (July 21 to July 27)219 (July 28 to Aug. 3)
Current infections: Hillsborough County201197
Current infections: Merrimack County2819
Current infections: Rockingham County103104
Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Covid-19 news
On July 28, Gov. Chris Sununu issued Exhibit M to Emergency Order No. 29, which had been issued on April 9. Emergency Order No. 29 requires state agencies, boards and commissions to submit recommendations to Sununu if any regulatory deadlines should be adjusted in response to the state of emergency. Per Exhibit M, the percentage of gross proceeds available for endowment allocations under the UNIQUE Endowment Allocation Program has been temporarily modified to 30 percent.

On July 29, Sununu issued Exhibit N to Emergency Order No. 29, which temporarily waives certain professional examination requirements for licensing through the state’s Office of Professional Licensure and Certification.

On July 30, applications opened for all qualified health care and long-term care providers for the New Hampshire Emergency Healthcare System Relief Fund, according to a press release from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Relief and Recovery. All state health care providers with Covid-19-related expenses and lost revenues from March 1 to Dec. 30 of this year are eligible to apply now through Aug. 13. More information about the fund is available at goferr.nh.gov.

On July 31, Sununu issued Emergency Order No. 61, extending the Safer at Home advisory in the Granite State through at least Sept. 1. The advisory was originally announced on June 15, per Emergency Order No. 52.

A FedEx charter flight aboard a Boeing 777 carried 450,000 gowns to be shipped to facilities across New Hampshire and beyond landed at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport on Aug. 1 — the largest cargo flight in the airport’s history, according to a press release issued by the Governor’s Office. The State of New Hampshire purchased the entire shipment of PPE, and will be reimbursed for the gowns delivered to the VA. More than 1,200 tons of PPE have been delivered to New Hampshire aboard FedEx charter flights to date, according to the release.

Details of all of Sununu’s Emergency and Executive Orders can be found at governor.nh.gov.

Legislative action
In the past week, Gov. Chris Sununu has signed into law and vetoed several bills, according to multiple press releases from the Office of the Governor.

Here are some of the highlights:HB 1660 was vetoed. In his veto statement Sununu said that the bill “leaves open a serious and real possibility that victims of domestic violence could inadvertently obtain the wrong protective order that leaves them with fewer protections from their abusers.” Further, he said, the legislation would allow a court to enter a temporary order against someone without telling that person, which he said could violate a person’s constitutional rights.

HB 250, which would have created a dental benefit under the state Medicaid program, was vetoed. In his veto statement Sununu said that while he supports the idea of adding dental to Medicaid, with the state facing historic revenue shortfalls his priority is to bring the budget into balance. “I cannot support adding this $11 million a year General Fund expense for a new service that would necessitate cutting $11 million in existing services,” he said in his statement.

HB 1234, which merged almost 40 pieces of legislation, was vetoed. Sununu said in his veto statement that he was “concerned that significant portions of this legislation have not had a chance to go through the public hearing process in the House of Representatives.”

HB 1665, pertaining to the state’s redistricting process, was vetoed. “It will be the responsibility of the legislature we elect in November to take up the redistricting process in a way that our citizens deserve and expect,” Sununu said in his veto statement.

SB 7, establishing the secure modern accurate registration act (SMART Act), was vetoed. In his veto statement, Sununu said that the state already has a very accessible voter registration process and that this bill “would take a system that already works well and add a convoluted, inefficient, and expensive process on top of it.”

SB 311 was vetoed. The bill would have allowed for a shorter waiting period, in certain circumstances, to petition for annulment of records of arrest, conviction, and sentence for simple possession drug-related crimes that were committed when the person was under the age of 25.

HB 1558 was signed into law, addressing several education-related issues, including kindergarten funding; violence in schools; child sexual abuse prevention education and training; student wellness; and criminal background checks for bus drivers, among several other items.

HB 1582 was signed into law, relative to free tuition at colleges and universities for children of veterans who are totally and permanently disabled; programs to aid veterans’ access to employment, housing, health care, and college degrees; educational assistance for members of the New Hampshire National Guard; tuition waivers for children in state foster care or guardianship; and prohibiting higher education institutions from discriminating on the basis of military, law enforcement or veterans status.

iLearnNH
Last week the New Hampshire Department of Education launched a statewide Learning Management System that is open to all schools at no cost, an effort to improve both in-class and remote instruction, Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut said in a press release. “It will allow schools to be nimble should they face disruptions to education like Covid-19,” he said. The iLearnNH system uses the Canvas learning management system, which allows teachers to build and manage courses and assignments and communicate with students. The University System of New Hampshire already uses Canvas and has contracted with the Department of Education to provide free access and support to iLearnNH to all schools in the state. The three-year, $6.2 million contract that supports iLearnNH is funded through two federal grants and the CARES Act.

The State Historical Resources Council has added 11 properties to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places, according to a press release. Locally, these include the Town Pound in Boscawen, which held stray livestock until their owners could claim them, and the Old Meeting House, which used to be a hearse house and was converted to an outhouse in 1932.

All Manchester residents are being encouraged to get free testing for Covid-19, available at mobile testing sites on the east and west sides any Tuesday or Thursday in August, according to a press release from the city’s Health Department. Appointments are required and can be scheduled by calling 668-1547.

M&M Construction Services of Bedford announced in a press release that it has completed construction of the only Golden Corral restaurant in New Hampshire, located at 655 S. Willow St. in Manchester, where the Osram Sylvania plant used to be. The grand opening is planned for Aug. 17, according to the release.

The Salem Police Department is now offering online reporting for non-emergency incidents or crimes on its website, townofsalemnh.org/police-department, according to a press release. Residents can now submit reports as well as make record requests and ask questions about the police department 24 hours a day.

3 months until disaster?

In less than three months, America will go to the polls to elect a new president, Joe Biden, or re-elect Donald Trump. But, unlike any other national election in our lifetimes, we are in the midst of a pandemic. Our citizens have been told over and over to wear masks and stay at least six feet away from others in order to stay safe from a disease that is likely to have killed over 200,000 Americans by election day (Nov. 4). How is that supposed to work when we know that presidential elections draw big crowds, are held indoors and have long lines?

The logical answer is to vote by mail. Historically, about 4 percent of voters choose absentee ballots. We’ve all heard the pundits say something like “With 90 percent of the ballots counted, so-and-so is leading by a slim margin and the absentee ballots have yet to be counted.” Voters hold their breath as races deemed too close to call hinge on the absentees.

So, what happens when the traditional absentee expectations are increased 15 or 20 times, as actually happened in a June statewide election in Pennsylvania? The numbers overwhelmed the election overseers and caused the results in a number of counties to be delayed for weeks. Is that what we are about to see in New Hampshire and across the country?

Is this about to be the perfect scenario for President Trump to say “I told you so” and claim that the election is invalid? Even if he’s wrong, might he be able to create enough of a doubt to throw the results into chaos? If so, the ensuing calamity would likely dwarf the Florida 2000 presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore, when hanging chads became a new phrase in our political jargon. Fortunately, both Bush and Gore conducted themselves honorably, for the good of the country, especially Al Gore.

In accepting the decision of the Supreme Court, Al Gore prevented what could possibly have been chaos, even blood, in the streets of America. While Democrats around the country were upset and complained about the court’s decision, our democracy survived

If President Trump were in Al Gore’s position would he have acted in a similar manner? I don’t believe so. If we don’t have a clear result and either of the candidates cries foul, especially in this volatile political environment, what happens next?

Personally, I’m very nervous.

~ Fred Bramante

Book Review 20/07/02

Porkopolis, by Alex Blanchette (246 pages, Duke University Press)

When Alex Blanchette first moved to “Porkopolis,” residents asked if he was pro-hog or anti-hog. “Neither,” he would say, with the earned detachment of an academic.

For you and me, the question comes down to this: are we pro-bacon or anti-bacon? The average American is said to eat 18 pounds of it every year, despite occasional exposure (thanks largely to PETA) to the horrors of factory farming.

But it is harder still to justify eating bacon and pork tenderloin after reading Blanchette’s clear-eyed account of the industrial pig. Begun as a doctoral dissertation, the book is about as far from a PETA diatribe as you can get; Blanchette applies a dispassionate eye to “concentrated animal feeding operations,” also known as CAFOs. He moved to an town he calls “Dixon,” home to a massive meat-processing operation that manages all facets of a hog’s life, from the artificial insemination of its mother, to the slitting of its throat, to its rendering and dispersal to not only our supermarket counters but largely unseen uses in our daily lives in gelatin. (“I cannot write this book — it is possible that I cannot type this sentence — without touching dead traces of industrial pigs,” Blanchette writes.

He was not there to sensationalize what goes within a plant that kills a hog every three seconds, about 7 million hogs every year, but to understand the ecosystem of such an operation: the hogs, yes, but also the 5,000 or so workers the company employs. To do so, he worked in the plant and became friendly with the workers and other residents of the town, as well as company officials. He enjoyed this extraordinary access and trust because they knew he was writing a scholarly book, one that presumably would not make much of a splash. And it will hold little appeal for the casual reader, dense as it is with footnotes and ten-dollar words.

But that’s unfortunate, because Porkopolis is an even-handed exploration of an issue usually dominated by extremes: the “People gotta eat,” “They’re just stupid animals” and “There wouldn’t be a Dixon without hogs” chorus on one side; the “murderous, animal abusers” chorus on the other.

In fact, the plant where Blanchette worked employed people who would sometimes try to smuggle a sick piglet out of the building in their coveralls so it wouldn’t be euthanized, and who would resuscitate a stillborn pig with their own mouth and cheer when the piglet took its first breath.

That said, they willingly take jobs that involve sitting on a sow’s back while she is artificially inseminated so she will have babies we will eat in six months. Those on assembly lines are subjected to physical trauma that seems similar to the suffering of the pigs, so much so that new hires are warned that they will endure a period of “breaking in,” which Blanchette calls “the agonizing process of molding the human body to the disassembly line’s machine-driven repetition.” The psychological toll of the work (some workers, for example, spend six days a week wiping blood and feces from pig intestines) seems secondary to its physical assaults.

It’s hard to write on the topic without separating the players into heroes and villains, Blancette says. “However, what remains is something perhaps more honest: how people in this town, like so many of us, struggle within and against things they are a constitutive part of but do not know how to change.”

That said, even Blanchette’s moral generosity and even-handed treatment of the pork industry cannot powder and perfume the everyday horrors contained within: the sow (sow, because she’s not allowed to be a mother) banging her head violently against a metal enclosure because she cannot nest, as is her instinct; the coolers in which deficient piglets are enclosed to be gassed. And regardless of benefit, the practice of feeding piglets plasma from older, slaughtered pigs is something that the average person eyeing a BLT would rather not contemplate.

In the end, Blanchette does seem to take a side, however softly. He rues the pig’s lost right to be “an inefficient creature,” its every cell sucked into a capitalist chute applauded for making use of every part of an animal. The planet is full of chicken carcasses, he explains. This fossil record of chickens, whose bodies we grotesquely modify for the right to enjoy six nuggets for a dollar, may one day be studied in conjunction with human dominance during the anthropocene.

But these future archeologists would find no pig skeletons preserved in amber. Like ethical hikers, we leave no trace. We are like mothers yelling at our children, “I gave you life, I can take it away.” Only by creating the need for factory farms with our excessive consumption, we really mean it. Blanchette may not have set out to write an argument for de-industrializing pigs, but he achieved it. B

BOOK NOTES
If you’ve already read How Not to Die Alone, don’t get too excited about Something to Live For, a new paperback by Richard Roper that was published this week.
It’s the same book.
How Not to Die Alone, Roper’s debut novel, came out in hardcover in May 2019. It was generally well-received. It garnered a “meh” number of ratings on Amazon (161) but got a thumbs-up in The New York Times and USA Today.
So why the new title?
It’s not unusual for a book to have a different title in the U.S. and the United Kingdom (e.g., Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone vs. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone). Less common is an American title that is changed when a book goes from hardcover to paperback.
As it turns out, we can blame the Brits and the pandemic.
Roper wrote recently on his website that How Not to Die Alone was the original title but while “the U.S. loved it,” it was considered too dark for the U.K. So it was released there as Something to Live For, which is the title of a song that is meaningful in the book.
But then 2020 swaggered in, and now How Not to Die Alone is too dark in Covidian America.
“And so, after all that, the book is now called Something to Live For everywhere,” Roper wrote on his blog. “Oh, apart from Sweden, and Germany, which both have different titles.”
Meanwhile, on Reddit (r/books), there rages a debate on whether paperbacks or hardbacks are better. What’s most interesting in the thread is how many people say they have been literally injured by hardback books, usually while reading in bed. The mentioned assailants: The Lord of the Rings (“nearly cleaved my head in two”), The Count of Monte Cristo (1,488 pages), Oathbringer (1,248 pages) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (672 pages).
But this has to be the best answer: “I carried around a really thick hardcover book while I was in jail. Mostly because I was reading it but it was nice knowing that I had something that could hold up to some damage should something crazy have happened. Hardcover better.” Now you know.

On-the-go deliciousness

How food trucks are finding new ways to serve up their eats

It’s a hot afternoon in July as Tony Elias begins gearing up his new food truck, The Spot To-Go, for dinner outside Manchester Firing Line. You’ll find him there every Monday during the range’s Cruise Night car shows, in addition to other spots throughout the week, serving up Puerto Rican foods he grew up eating, from empanadas to jibaritos.

Even though he’s in the middle of his first season behind the wheel of The Spot To-Go, Elias is no stranger to food trucks — he’s also owned Made With Love 603 since 2014, a food trailer offering a similar menu of Puerto Rican eats. He took about two years off from the business, getting a day job while working with different recipes under what would be a new, rebranded concept.

Earlier this year, Elias was all ready to get out there and cook — but then the pandemic arrived, forcing the closure of city government offices and temporarily preventing him from getting his licenses. He eventually was able to open for business, albeit several months later than planned, during the first week of June.

“I had the food truck custom-made and everything … and it must have been like three days after I got the truck that everything started getting shut down,” he said. “At that time, I had already given my notice at my job. So everything was kind of stuck in limbo, and I had no choice but to ride it out, but I did have time to come up with a menu and imagine everything I wanted to do.”

Indeed, the pandemic came to New Hampshire as the state’s food truck industry was continuing to boom. Currently, there are 199 licensed mobile cook units in the state, according to Colleen Smith of New Hampshire Food Protection — an increase of nearly 50 percent since April 2016. Now, as the virus has all but wiped out the already short window of time for food truck festivals in the Granite State, many truck and trailer owners already licensed with the state have chosen to sit out the season, while those who are carrying on have sought out other avenues to make up for lost business.

New trucks rolling in

Launching a food truck is hard enough, Elias said, never mind maintaining a regular schedule during a pandemic. That’s why he jumped on the opportunity when he was contacted earlier this year about parking The Spot To-Go at the Firing Line every Monday. He can also be found on the Beech Street side of the JFK Arena and in the parking lot of Titan Auto Repair on Elm Street, depending on the day.

His menu is similar to that of the Made With Love 603 trailer, featuring favorites like beef and chicken empanadas, combo plates with pork, rice and beans, and jibaritos, or fried plantain sliders with pork, cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo ketchup. But Elias has also added a number of new items — his tacos, for instance, have been a huge hit.

“I call them Puerto Rican tacos. I do them differently with the seasoning in the meat and on the shell,” he said. “You bite into this taco and it’s just an explosion of flavor in your mouth.”

He has also introduced canoas and mofongo “cones.” Canoas feature a roasted yellow sweet plantain sliced all the way down the middle and stuffed with beef, melted cheese and cilantro, resembling the shape of a canoe.

Mofongo traditionally consists of fried plantains mashed up and stuffed with meat, cheese and seasonings. Elias takes his creation a step further by shaping the mashed plantains into a cone and wrapping it in foil. You can get it with roast pork, fried pork or chicken.

“I actually came across a video on Facebook of a place in Puerto Rico doing it, and I said, ‘Man, that is a great idea,’” he said. “So we shape [the mofongo] into a cone, and then we fry it a second time, so it’s a nice crunchy outside with a soft inside, and a bang of flavor.”

A plant-based comfort food truck known as The Hungry Caterpillar also launched last month, owned by Christy and Nick Ortins of Geary Farms in Chester. Christy Ortins said the couple’s original plan for the truck was to secure bookings at festivals. But once all of the festival cancellations were set in motion, she said, they began contacting nearby business owners inquiring about possible parking spots.

“We reached out basically to anybody we could think of that had commercial property,” she said, adding that The Hungry Caterpillar can now be found at Hampstead Health & Fitness most Mondays and at Sue Padden Real Estate in Sandown most Wednesdays and Fridays. “Our next step is to contact some breweries and wineries.”

Popular items at the truck include a homemade black bean burger, fried cauliflower bites, “plant-a-rella” sticks, or plant-based cheese sticks that are breaded and deep fried, and a tempeh sandwich with sliced tomato plant-based mayo and local greens on bread from the Portsmouth-based Me & Ollie’s Bakery & Cafe. Christy Ortin said the truck has also recently begun offering a few flavors of vegan ice cream from Memories Ice Cream of Kingston, while specials may include fried zucchini slices or summer squash they grow themselves on the farm.

In Concord, a 20-foot food trailer called Wander Roll made its debut earlier this month, serving several types of locally inspired Vietnamese-style egg rolls. Co-owner Andrew Weakly of Bow said he and his wife Inga were supposed to receive the custom-built trailer from M&R Specialty Trailers and Trucks in Florida in April — but due to the pandemic, it didn’t actually arrive until mid-June, delaying the couple’s licensing application process. Once they were ready to go, they had what they called a “soft launch” on July 11 outside a friend’s South End home.

“I think, short of having actual events, one of our strategies is going to be around … pop-up neighborhood events, and then also some private events,” Andrew Weakly said.

Wander Roll is starting with five types of egg rolls, named after places the Weaklys have lived, are from or have traveled to — a traditional pork roll (the “Can Tho”), a Buffalo chicken roll (the “Brighton”), a sweet potato black bean roll (the “Bristol”), a honey ginger tofu roll (the “Concord”), and a cake puff dessert roll topped with powdered sugar and homemade chocolate sauce. Andrew Weakly said the trailer also offers fresh limeade and is in the process of collaborating with downtown Concord’s Revelstoke Coffee to introduce a Vietnamese iced coffee. Wander Roll’s next public appearance will be on Sunday, Aug. 2, at Lithermans Limited Brewery in Concord.

Also recently serving its first customers in the Capital City is The Food Abides, a new food truck named after a play on words from the famous quote “the dude abides” in the ’90s film The Big Lebowski. The Lunch Lady food truck, as it was formerly known, was sold to Jesika Belair, owner of Umami Farm Fresh Cafe in Northwood, in February.

Now, Umami chefs Patrick Harris and Max G. Dowling are a two-man team, bringing The Food Abides to several local breweries. The truck served a special Jamaican-themed menu on July 26 at Lithermans, but Harris said the menu will feature all kinds of creative takes on sandwiches, tacos and salads. The Food Abides is scheduled to appear at Henniker Brewing Co. on Saturday, Aug. 15, according to Harris, and will be available to rent for private events later this fall.

“We definitely want to alternate [menu items] depending on where we go, and if we’re at a brewery then we want to use that brewery’s beer in our cooking … to give people a full culinary experience,” Harris said.

The Gyro Spot in downtown Manchester recently announced it has built a food truck. According to owner Alex Lambroulis, the plan is for the truck to offer catering services and to be at various breweries in the area in the near future.

In Loudon, the Whisked Away Cafe food truck is also in the middle of its inaugural season. You can find it most Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at a dirt turnaround road on Route 106 in Loudon, steps away from the Cascade Campground. The truck is run by sisters Korrie Garland and Crystal Hopkins, along with their mother, Louise Cloutier, who owned the Bonne Femmes restaurant in downtown Pembroke about 15 years ago.

Socially distanced catering

Despite the absence of festivals, some seasoned food truckers have reported a surge in other aspects of business, most notably in the form of private event catering requests.

Dan DeCourcey is the owner and pitmaster of Up in Your Grill, a barbecue food trailer based in Merrimack. He said he initially had to pivot his operations to roadside vending only because every fair, festival and catering event he had booked at the onset of the pandemic was canceled. But by the end of June, “the catering floodgates seemed to open,” he said — now he gets at least one and oftentimes multiple catering inquiries a day.

“People are looking for good social distancing alternatives to traditional catering buffets and summer barbecue buffet-style events. Food trucks are very well positioned to fill the need,” DeCourcey said in an email. “We can provide individual meals from the window and folks can have socially distanced outdoor events.”

Lately, DeCourcey said he’s seen an increase in requests for “treat the team for lunch” company parties and gatherings. When he’s not catering for an event, he can be found in the parking lot of Vault Motor Storage in Merrimack on weekends, offering several items that can be ordered as combo plates or sandwiches, like pulled pork, pulled chicken and beef brisket.

Windham chef Adam Wactowski of Walking Gourmet, a food truck converted from an old church bus in Ohio, is at a few public locations in New Hampshire during the week, while his weekends have mostly been devoted to private events. He said rescheduled weddings and rehearsal dinners from months ago have been some of the most common.

“Brides and grooms had to scramble when everything shut down, so they’re being creative and having a lot of fun with their menus,” said Wactowski, who will often create personalized menus from the truck for his clients. For instance, he said he recently did a breakfast-themed menu for a wedding with made-to-order crepes, croissants and hash brown “egg nests.” When he’s parked at a public spot, he’ll usually dabble in his own gourmet burgers, chicken sandwiches and rangoons with a variety of fillings.

The Winni Wagon food truck, which appears at several spots in Laconia, has also been getting attention from couples looking to have a caterer at their rehearsal dinners. Owner Janine Geddis started the Winni Wagon last year in a former FedEx truck. She serves all kinds of comfort options from burgers and hot dogs to a Buffalo chicken grilled cheese and a cheesesteak sandwich with peppers and onions, many of which are named after an island on Lake Winnipesaukee.

“People have changed their plans from this big wedding to a small backyard wedding where they can’t necessarily take a large group to a restaurant, so they’ll contact me and say, ‘Hey, you can come to my backyard rehearsal?’” Geddis said. “I’ve had them do what they want [with the menu]. They’ll pick maybe three or four items from my main menu and a couple of sides.”

Safe gatherings

Like Elias’s weekly appearances at the Cruise Night car shows, food truck owners are still finding ways to serve their customers in safe environments. Last month the Derry-Salem Elks introduced food trucks to its outdoor pavilion on Shadow Lake Road in Salem every Tuesday through Thursday from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., rain or shine.

“[The pavilion] is normally private, but during these times we’ve allowed the public to come sit at the picnic tables by the gate,” Derry-Salem Elks member Melissa Levesque said. “We’re trying to plan something like a small festival at the lodge, since we have a huge parking lot.”

Every Tuesday you can find B’s Tacos outside the pavilion gate. Owner Kenny Spilman launched the Londonderry-based truck in 2013, serving Tex-Mex-style tacos, burritos and other items using fresh ingredients. He has a second trailer that you can also find every Tuesday through Saturday outside the BP Gas Station on Mohawk Road in Londonderry.

On Wednesdays the Walking Gourmet takes over cooking duties at the gate, and Wactowski will often have at least one burger, one chicken sandwich and one rangoon option in addition to a few sides and children’s meal items. Then on Thursdays it’s all about the barbecue as Doug Loranger of the Nashua-based Ranger’s BBQ comes around to serve several meats and sides.

The pavilion, according to Levesque, features eight tables that seat up to six diners each that are first-come, first-served and regularly sanitized.

In Milford, owner John Goldberg of The Riverhouse Cafe has put together his own outdoor seating area for his recently launched food trailer, Fuel — complete with a full-service craft cocktail bar, covered seating and live local music acts every Friday and Saturday throughout the summer. Fuel features several upscale comfort foods like its own ground burgers, hand-cut fries and dry-rubbed chicken wings and, as of earlier this month, fried seafood and buttered lobster rolls. Goldberg said the trailer is expected to provide food options for the upcoming Station 101 craft beer and wine bar opening next door.

Breweries also continue to be popular spots to enjoy food trucks. Able Ebenezer Brewing Co. in Merrimack, Lithermans Limited in Concord, Henniker Brewing Co. and Twin Barns Brewing Co. in Meredith all have regular schedules of food trucks and outdoor patio seating.

Where to find local food trucks and trailers

Even though there are almost no annual food truck festivals this year, dozens of New Hampshire-based food trucks, food trailers and mobile caterers are still actively operating across the state. Here’s a list of them with information on what they offer, as well as where and when you can find each one. Know of an active food truck or trailer in New Hampshire that’s not on this list? Let us know at [email protected].

• B’s Tacos (nhtacotruck.com, find them on Facebook) offers a menu of fresh Tex-Mex options like tacos, burritos and rice bowls prepared using family recipes. Find them outside the BP Gas Station (3 Mohawk Drive, Londonderry) every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. A second truck regularly appears at several locations across New Hampshire. On Tuesdays, for example, you can find them at the Derry-Salem Elks Lodge (39 Shadow Lake Road, Salem) from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Follow them on Facebook for updates.

• Baked, Brewed & Organically Moo’ed (bakedbrewed.com, find them on Facebook @organicallymooed) features a menu of organic ice cream, locally roasted coffee and baked goods, like the “bubble waffle,” made to order with a scoop of ice cream, maple syrup, freshly made whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles. Find them at 915 Suncook Valley Road in Alton (hours vary) and at the Gilmanton Community Farmers Market (1385 Route 140) on Sundays from noon to 3 p.m.

• Dulces Bakery (dulcesbakerynh.com, find them on Facebook @dulcesbakerynh) launched a dessert truck earlier this year, offering its own assorted cookies, cupcakes and other pastries and treats, including more than two dozen flavors of tres leches. Find them at 16 Walnut St. in Nashua on Saturdays, from 1 to 8 p.m.

• Flaco’s Mexican Street Food (find them on Facebook @flacosmexicanstreetfood) offers a variety of made-to-order Mexican options, like tacos, burritos and quesadillas, with fillings such as asada (grilled steak), al pastor (marinated pork), chicken, slow-cooked pork and Mexican sausage. Find them at 185 S. Main St. in Newton every Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sunday from noon to 8 p.m., weather permitting.

• The Food Abides (find them on Facebook @thefoodabidestruck) is a new food truck run by Patrick Harris and Max G. Dowling of Umami Farm Fresh Cafe in Northwood. It held its first public event on July 26 at Lithermans Limited Brewery in Concord, offering creative takes on sandwiches, tacos, salads and more. The truck is scheduled to appear at Henniker Brewing Co. on Saturday, Aug. 15.

• Fuel (damngoodgrub.com/fuel, find them on Facebook @fuelnh) is a new food trailer offering scratch-made options like its own ground burgers, hand-cut fries and hand-breaded chicken tenders, along with more than a dozen original sauces, or “fuel,” to choose from. Find them outside The Riverhouse Cafe (167 Union Square, Milford) every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m., and on Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m. Live music begins at 6 p.m. outside the truck on Fridays and Saturdays.

• The Gyro Spot (thegyrospot.com, find them on Facebook @gyrospottruck) recently announced a food truck that is available for catering, according to owner Alex Lambroulis. He said they also plan to park at local breweries weekly in the near future.

• The Hungry Caterpillar (gearyfarmsnh.squarespace.com/foodtruck, find them on Facebook @thehungrycaterpillarnh) is a new food truck offering plant-based comfort items like black bean veggie burgers, hand-cut fries, fried cauliflower, fried zucchini and summer squash and more, owned and operated by Christy and Nick Ortins of Geary Farms in Chester. Find them on Mondays from about 4 to 8 p.m. at Hampstead Health & Fitness (45 Danville Road, E. Hampstead), and on Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sue Padden Real Estate (346 Main St., Sandown).

• Island Bowls (islandbowlsllc.com, find them on Facebook @islandbowlsllcnh) is a mobile food wagon offering organic açaí bowls, spirulina bowls and Hawaiian shaved ice. Find them at 589 Elm St. in Milford every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Jayrard’s Java Cafe (jayrardsjava.square.site, find them on Facebook @jayrardsjavacafe) is a mobile coffee shop specializing in Costa Rican coffees, organic teas and more. The trailer appears at several locations throughout southern New Hampshire. Its next event will be during the Village Green Summer Concert Series in Pelham on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 5 p.m.

• Just Like Meme’s (find them on Facebook @justlikememes) is a Rumney-based food trailer offering comfort items like doughnuts, burgers, steak tips and more. On select dates in August you can find them at the Heritage Harley-Davidson in Concord (142 Manchester St.).

• Mama’s On the Run (find them on Facebook @mamasontherunn) is a Hillsborough-based food truck brought to you by the owners of Mama McDonough’s Irish Pub, offering a selection of American-style foods with an Irish twist. Their featured locations vary week to week, including at Twins Smoke Shop (80 Perkins Road, Londonderry) and at the Henniker Brewing Co. (129 Centervale Road). Follow them on Facebook for the most up-to-date details.

• Messy Mike’s Barbecue & Catering Co. (messymikesbarbecue, find them on Facebook @messymikesbbq) is launching a 30-foot mobile food trailer in the coming weeks that will soon be in the parking lot of Rockingham Acres Greenhouse (159 Rockingham Road, Derry). The menu, according to owner Michael “Messy Mike” Massiglia, will include various meats sold by the pound, sandwiches and sides, including cornbread provided by Cheryl Holbert of Nomad Bakery in Derry. Details on days and times are still to be determined, but Massiglia said the trailer will likely be there at least every Thursday through Sunday.

• Pressed for Time Mobile Cafe (pressedfortimecoffee.com, find them on Facebook @pressedfortimemobilecafe) offers all kinds of specialty coffees, creative takes on breakfast sandwiches, bagels, crepes and more. Find them at Seacoast Sport Cycle (129 Rockingham Road, Derry) every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., on Fridays from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Ranger’s BBQ (rangers-bbq.com, find them on Facebook @rangersbbq17) is a food trailer specializing in a variety of styles of barbecue, including North Carolina-style pulled pork and slow-cooked Memphis-style ribs, as well as smoked brisket, pulled chicken and several sides, like homemade macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, cornbread and smoked baked beans with bacon. Find them at the Derry-Salem Elks Lodge (39 Shadow Lake Road, Salem) on Thursdays from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., and at 324 Daniel Webster Highway in Nashua (near the Tyngsboro, Mass., state line) most Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Follow them on Facebook for the most up-to-date information, as owner Doug Loranger will sometimes cater for private events on the weekends.

• The Rolling Stoves (find them on Facebook) is a new Meredith-based food trailer offering menu items like burgers, hot dogs, wraps, french fries and more. They appear at several different locations, but most regularly at Twin Barns Brewing Co. (194 Daniel Webster Highway, Meredith).

• Smoke N’ Butts BBQ (smokenbuttsbbq.com, find them on Facebook @smokenbuttsbbq) offers several barbecue options like pulled pork tacos and burritos, seasoned pork spareribs and smoked chicken wings. Find them at The Farmer’s Wife (20 Main St., Candia) on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• The Spot To-Go (find them on Facebook @thespottogo603) offers a variety of Puerto Rican options, like beef or chicken empanadas, pinchos (chicken kebabs), tostones (fried plantains), canoas (roasted yellow plantains stuffed with beef and cheese) and mofongo cones, or cone-shaped plantains, fried and stuffed with your choice of fried pork, roast pork or chicken. Follow them on social media for the most up-to-date details on their whereabouts, but they’re most often found at the Manchester Firing Line (2540 Brown Ave.) on Mondays from about 5 to 8 p.m. during the shooting range’s weekly Cruise Nights; at the JFK Memorial Coliseum (303 Beech St.) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from about 3 to 8 p.m.; and at Titan Auto Repair (151 Elm St., Manchester) on Thursdays and Fridays from about 3 to 8 p.m.

• Taco Time (find them on Facebook @tacotimenh) offers authentic Mexican cuisine like tacos, quesadillas, nachos and occasional specials, like tres leches, coconut rice pudding, three-bean chili with cornbread and fresh fish tacos with haddock or shrimp. Find them at 244 Elm St. in Milford (in front of the former Lefty’s Lanes bowling alley) every Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Up In Your Grill (upinyourgrill.com, find them on Facebook @upinyourgrill) is a Merrimack-based barbecue food trailer offering pulled pork, pulled chicken, beef brisket, sausage, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, cornbread and more. Find them at Vault Motor Storage (526 Daniel Webster Highway, Merrimack) most Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., except for when the trailer is hired for a private event. Hours for the week are always posted to the Facebook page.

• Walking Gourmet (find them on Facebook @walkinggourmetnh) is a food truck converted from an old church bus from Ohio, offering an ever-changing menu of comfort foods. Popular items include unique takes on burgers, chicken sandwiches and rangoons. The Sunday chicken sandwich (pictured on the cover of this issue), for example, features fried chicken breast with Swiss cheese, Brussels sprout and radish slaw, garlic dill pickles, black pepper aioli and maple Dijon. Find them on Wednesdays from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Derry-Salem Elks Lodge (39 Shadow Lake Road, Salem), and on Fridays from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at Griffin Park (101 Range Road, Windham).

• Wander Roll (wanderroll.com, find them on Facebook @wanderroll) is a new mobile food trailer launched by Andrew and Inga Weakly of Bow, specializing in Vietnamese-style egg rolls. They also offer fresh limeade and are in the process of introducing Vietnamese iced coffee in collaboration with Revelstoke Coffee in Concord. They’ll be at Lithermans Limited Brewery (126 Hall St., Unit B, Concord) on Sunday, Aug. 2, from 2 to 6 p.m., and will likely appear at other venues and pop-up events later this summer.

• Whisked Away Cafe (find them on Facebook @whiskedawayfoodtruck) offers a diverse menu of sandwiches, wraps, chicken fingers, empanadas, sides, salads and more. Find them at 485 Route 106 South in Loudon, near the Cascade Campground, most Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (hours vary).

• Winni Wagon (winniwagonfoodtruck.com, find them on Facebook @winniwagon) offers a menu of fresh comfort foods, many of which are named after different islands on Lake Winnipesaukee. The Cow Island, for example, features a four-ounce Angus patty topped with macaroni and cheese and a drizzle of barbecue sauce, while the Mark Island is a cheesesteak sandwich with peppers and onions. The menu also includes sides like loaded cajun fries and drinks like homemade strawberry lemonade. Find them most Mondays at Trustworthy Hardware (1084 Union Ave., Laconia) and Thursdays at the Irwin Hyundai dealership (446 Union Ave., Laconia), from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on both days. If the truck does not have a private event booked on Fridays or Saturdays, it will sometimes appear at Trustworthy Hardware on those days as well, according to owner Janine Geddis.

Licensing and permitting
All food trucks and trailers must have a mobile food unit license from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. If a truck is operating in any one of the state’s 15 self-inspecting cities and towns — Bedford, Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Derry, Dover, Exeter, Keene, Manchester, Merrimack, Nashua, Plaistow, Portsmouth, Rochester and Salem — its owner must additionally have a hawkers and peddlers license issued by that municipality.
Additional single-day permits are also required for a truck to participate in an event such as a festival. Some food truckers, either to save money on fees or because an event in a self-inspecting city or town has been canceled, have chosen not to renew their hawkers and peddlers licenses.
Earlier this year a bill had been introduced in the New Hampshire Legislature calling for the establishment of a committee to study food truck regulation, with the goal to streamline the licensing process. SB 479 was passed in the Senate with amendment on March 5 before it died in the House, but Sen. Harold French of Franklin, the bill’s prime sponsor, said he plans to raise the issue again during the next legislative session.

Featured image: Sunday chicken sandwich (fried chicken breast, Swiss cheese, Brussels sprout and radish slaw, garlic dill pickles, black pepper aioli and maple Dijon) from the Walking Gourmet food truck. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.

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