It was inevitable, Josh Yoder says as he describes his food journey and current passion: Yoder’s Donuts food truck.
“I grew up in the food business working for my dad. My dad has a specialty food business.” The brick and mortar store was a bakery, deli, [the store] carried a lot of specialty foods” that were from Amish country in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Josh and his brother eventually bought the business from their dad, but Josh wanted to live in the mountains. So Josh sold his share of the business to his brother and moved to Cody two years ago with his family. Knowing he wanted to get into some kind of food business, he waited until the opportunity to purchase his own food truck was right.
Today, Yoder’s Donuts can be seen on the streets of Cody and Powell serving up hot, delicious traditional Amish donuts to some very satisfied customers. The recipe is from an old family recipe, “that came up from the Yoders.” Josh is proud of the fact that all his donuts are hand-made, from scratch, everyday.
But why a donut truck? “I love making happy with food and I love donuts,” he pauses, “everyone loves donuts. [Yoder’s doughnuts] is so different than what you’d buy at the grocery store.” So to give people a chance to eat something like this” and to see the look on their face makes all the difference to Josh. There is also the flexibility with a food truck. Right now, Yoder’s Donuts are parking in different places, but they can also go to festivals and big events in the summer. But is it easier to own a food truck compared to a traditional brick-and-mortar location? “In some ways it’s harder because you don’t have a location to go to in the morning, unlock the door, and start with everything right there. But then the nice thing is that [a food truck] has minimal start-up costs.”
Even though they’ve only been open a week, Josh says the response to his donuts have been “overwhelming.” He goes on to explain that just last week, the doughnut food truck “did four times the business that we might do the first week. It’s been phenomenal.”
Yoder’s Donuts will only be open for the tourist season and then they will winterize the truck and put it storage after the last week of September. But the goal is down the road to invest in another truck or have a brick-and-mortar store here in Cody.
To see when Yoder’s Doughnut truck is going to be in your neck of the woods, check out their Facebook page here.
