San Bernardino FoodFest has returned for the new year.
The event was hosted on Saturday, January 18, 2020, and it featured loads of local cuisine, businesses, art, and live entertainment!
These monthly events have been uniting and celebrating San Bernardino’s community for over a year now.
The event was and will continue to be a host to several local food vendors, with options for anyone and everyone. Some of the options included fresh barbecue for the meat-eaters and vegan pizza and pastries for the more plant-based members of the community.
Local artist, Dontrell Jackson (@artrelluhmillion), explained how he was invited back to the festival after his last appearance there. He performed a live painting session for festival-goers to enjoy, and possibly purchase.
Jackson said he enjoyed the way he was giving back to the community with his art, mentioning that one of his latest artworks was donated to the City of Hope by the food festival.
“The San Bernardino FoodFest has shared a lot of my posts and paintings on their Instagram. They’re helping me out a lot,” Jackson added.
Though the event itself is not very big, Jackson shared that it has continued to grow with more and more local food, art and businesses. He said, “I think more people should come out here. It’s good for the community, so why not come out?”
A local vegan food vendor for Empowered Creations (@empowered_creations), Gabriel Ramirez, shared how members of the San Bernardino community, especially Latinos, were surprised to find vegan Mexican food at the event.
Ramirez stated, “Vegan food is good! It tastes great, it is good for the environment, and it is a healthy alternative for some,” as a line of costumers formed, waiting to order vegan tinga and ceviche.
Vegan Mexican food was not the only vegan option there, as a community member, Christopher Enhelder, shared his favorite treat of the night, tasty vegan pizza.
Enhelder shared how even though this community event was smaller than he anticipated, he felt like it had the opportunity to keep growing, as it already showed great potential with the current vendors.
Enhelder was a native to Riverside and recently moved to San Bernardino.
“As someone who recently moved here from the Riverside area, where there is more stuff like this, it’s kind of nice to see this is happening,” said Enhelder. “I definitely do plan on coming back.”
With many families and friends enjoying new food and waiting for live entertainment to start, the community of San Bernardino felt lively during the event.
“This is our first time at this event and it is super small, but there’s so many options and things to enjoy,” shared community members, Alex and Isabel Gurtis.
Isabel pointed out the bouncy house available for children to experience while their families savor their food and drinks.
Alex shared his excitement for the live entertainment. He was not expecting there to be two performances, the first by Patrick Arendall and the second by Endless Era.
“If you ever want something to do with your family, friends, or a date, you should definitely try and come to the food fest! You’ll be supporting local businesses while enjoying yourself,” said local, Rosario Cervantes. 
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