Meghan Blake-Horst Hired as City’s New Street Vending Coordinator

The City of Madison has hired Meghan Blake-Horst as its next Street Vending Coordinator. Based within the City’s Office of Business Resources and Economic Development Division, the Street Vending Coordinator manages the City’s food cart program, sidewalk cafes, arts and craft vending around the Farmers Market, merchant vending at Badger Football games, and various other street vending activities.

Meghan brings a unique background to this role. She is the founder and owner of Absolutely Art and has represented hundreds of local artists. She is also the co-founder of MadCity Bazaar - a pop-up market featuring locally made food and handcrafted items.

Meghan has deep ties in the community and a track-record of working with the city to support small business development. She is on the Board of Directors of the Goodman Community Center and Carts for Community (a non-profit organization focused on food carts as an avenue for community building). She also serves as the Local Business Representative on Madison’s Economic Development Committee, serves on the advisory panel for Dane Arts, is actively involved in Dane Buy Local, and has been a citizen leader in the City’s efforts to build the Madison Public Market.

Meghan will inherit the Street Vending Coordinator position from Warren Hansen who has led the City’s Street Vending operations since 1998 and will retire in early 2017. Under Warren’s stewardship, Madison has seen its street vending scene flourish with more and more food carts, sidewalk cafes, and merchant vendors adding to the vibrancy of the City and creating economic opportunities for small business owners.

As a community leader who is well-versed in City policy and deeply committed to supporting entrepreneurship in Madison, Meghan is well-suited to building on Warren’s success and guiding Madison’s Street Vending Program into the future.

Meghan begins work on Monday, Dec 5.