Leigh Ann Tona, 24
I Don’t Give a Fork food truck, Newark
idontgiveafork.com
If a smart-alecky food truck and hordes of munchie- craving festival-goers seem like a match made in heaven, it’s because they are. So much so, that UD grad Leigh Ann Tona and her fledgling I Don’t Give a Fork sandwich cart were besieged by the hungry swarms.
“It. Was. In. Sane,” Tona says. “Up to that point I had served maybe a couple hundred people at a time at an event. We had not prepared for Firefly at all.”
Tona is the sole owner and operator of I Don’t Give a Fork, which she founded during her senior year in Newark after winning a UD-sponsored business idea pitch competition. Before earning her minors in international business and entrepreneurial studies, she enlisted a few friends and family members to help out during festival weekend. The crew packed ingredients for I.D.G.A.F. signature sandwiches—like the Jive Turkey BLT and Tona’s epic Mac & Cheese-steak—before the customers stormed. Then the onslaught began.
“In three days we sold over 2,000 sandwiches,” she says. “We were on our feet for 66 hours in three days. We couldn’t walk after the third day, and we barely slept.”
But it was worth it. The experience proved valuable, and Tona has since upgraded her digs. “This time last year, the truck was basically a shed with a kitchen in it,” she says. The new truck is equipped with more fridge space, a restaurant- grade deep fryer and a shiny orange-and-blue wrap.
UPDATE: Firefly Menu
(courtesy of I Don’t Give a Fork, facebook)
