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"Food festivals are great. Not only do they give you a chance to indulge in new flavors and culinary experiences, they&amp;#039;re a wonderful way to bring multitudes of people in just about any community together. A festival happening in San Francisco this weekend illustrates that idea perfectly. The 2010 San Francisco Street Food Festival will gather more than 50 culinary enterprises, ranging from taco trucks (Kung Fu Tacos anyone?) to some of the city&amp;#039;s most exciting destination restaurants (Flour + Water and The Slanted Door) in one place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. This is far more than the usual &amp;quot;Taste of the City&amp;quot; festivals that are often held in communities around the country. Many of the businesses represented at Saturday&amp;#039;s event are the results of the efforts of La Cocina, an organization dedicated to helping immigrant and low-income women put their culinary dreams and ambitions to work, enabling them to own and operate their own businesses. La Cocina, &amp;quot;the kitchen&amp;quot;   in Spanish, was founded in 2005 to provide commercial kitchen space to women who wouldn&amp;#039;t normally have the resources to start up culinary businesses of their own. Just bringing a kitchen up to health standards \u2013 assuming a home kitchen can be, in many instances \u2013 is daunting enough. &amp;quot;Immigrant and low-income women have often used food as an income-patching mechanism as a way to make ends meet,&amp;quot; Caleb Zigas, director of operations for the non-profit, told Triple Pundit last year. &amp;quot;La Cocina&amp;#039;s goal is to help the transition from using food as income-patching to asset generation.&amp;quot;  In other words, helping women \u2013 and not a few men \u2013 find economic independence through their culinary skills. In the past five years, has helped jump-start numerous businesses in San Francisco, offering everything from Mayan to Indian to Russian foods and cuisines. The organization is currently involved in efforts to help vendors in the city&amp;#039;s burgeoning street food scene \u2013 many of whom operate under the regulatory radar \u2013 make the transition to operating legally so that they can run their businesses without the worry of running afoul of the law. In fact, one of the events tied into this weekend&amp;#039;s food festival is the Street Food Conference featuring two days of information and discussion about &amp;quot;the creation of viable economic models that allow small-scale food entrepreneurs to bring the foods they love to the cities in which they live.&amp;quot; Whether you plan to participate or simply just gorge yourself on great food, it should be a great time! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/food/news/a38279/more-than-a-food-festival/>