Lakewood, NJ Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Lakewood Township regulates mobile food trucks and carts as "Mobile Food Vendors" under § 4-3, Transient Merchants, Peddlers and Hawkers, which splits the category into kosher and non-kosher vendors. Both are defined the same way except for the food certification: a vendor who, using a motor vehicle only (carts are not permitted), goes from place to place selling prepared or packaged food, beverages and dairy products. A kosher mobile food vendor must be certified kosher by a certifying body recognized by the Jewish community of Lakewood.

Neither type may remain stationary in one location, or within 1,000 feet of that location, for more than 12 hours. 1. 7 sets the fee at $215 per vehicle plus $25 per operator, with a separate operator license required for each individual who works the truck. S. Naval Observatory's Air Almanac, the vehicle must be removed and the site cleared of trash at the close of each business day, and every vendor must also comply with Chapter 18, the Unified Development Ordinance. No food sales may occur on Township-owned property, or on any property along Routes 88, 526, 9, 70 or Kennedy Boulevard.

10 further confines stationary operation to areas zoned business, commercial, industrial or office-professional; a vendor may not sit in a residential zone or on a residentially used lot, and operating on private property requires certified-mail proof that the owner consented in writing. Licenses expire every June 30 and are not transferable; a vendor who lets a license lapse loses their spot to the next name on the Township Clerk's waiting list.