In a world of ice cream trucks, she runs a candy truck | We the People

Meet Latifah Lackey, the owner and operator of Candygyrl, a Philly food truck that sells nothing but candy.

• Job satisfaction: “Candy is happy, and selling candy is fun. It’s nostalgia, it’s whimsical, it’s like being a kid in a candy store.”

• Sweet ride: “When I bought the truck it was in a sweet family — it used to be a Tastykake truck, so it was already a Philly thing.”

When Latifah Lackey was growing up in North Philly in the 1980s, her grandmother used to give her a dollar to go see Miss Cookie, who was known in her neighborhood as “The Candy Lady.”

From the living room of her home, Miss Cookie sold every type of candy imaginable, and, of course, some cookies, too.

“She was my hero,” Lackey said.

With $1, Lackey could get 100 pieces of candy, including red strawberry licorice laces which she’d use to tie the other candies together so she could eat them all at once.

“Life was great back then,” she said.

Today, Lackey, a 45-year-old mother of two, still spends her money on candy, but now she’s also making a living from it as the owner and operator of Candygyrl, Philly’s only all-candy food truck.

“I still love candy, I just don’t eat the profit,” she said.

Since 2014, Lackey has taken her truck across the region to festivals, public events, corporate parties, and everything in between. Along with a wide selection of popular candy — from Fun Dip to giant swirl lollipops — Lackey also offers unique creations like a halal gummy mix (made with beef gelatin instead of pork) and a cotton candy boat (three scoops of cotton candy topped with gummy bears, gummy worms, and sprinkles).

But it’s not always easy being a candy truck in a world of ice cream and water ice trucks.

“I always tell people I’m not Mister Softee,” Lackey said. “People ask, ‘Is this an ice cream truck?’ No, it’s not. ‘Do you have water ice in there?’ No water ice, no ice cream, no pretzels or anything. I sell candy only.”

She’s even had detractors tell her candy is on its way out.

“People tell me people won’t be eating sugar in the next couple years and I’m like, ‘Are you serious? No, you may not be eating sugar, but people will always want candy,’ ” she said. “I don’t make sugar, I’m not Domino, I’m not Great Value, but trust me if I could, I would, and I’d sell that, too.

“I’m going to sell candy until I die because I believe in me, and I believe in what I want.”

Lackey’s foray into the business began in 2007, when she started creating candy buffets for parties. She then began decorating mason jars and filling them with an assortment of candy to take on the road.

“I would go around to cookouts and block parties to sell them,” she said. “Everybody was coming up and buying them.”

Lackey’s dream of owning her own candy truck started around 2010. To fund it, she diversified her hustles and started making and selling salads, too.

“It was on my heart so bad, I wanted this truck so bad,” she said.

Lackey recalled going to the Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival and just standing among the sea of food trucks, imagining herself there in a candy truck.

“I said, ‘I’m going to be here one day selling candy,’ ” she said. “I wrote everything down how I wanted it.”

In 2012, Lackey found the vehicle she’d been dreaming of — an old Tastykake truck from the late ’80s that was for sale at a dealership in Bellmawr, N.J. She bought it and had it towed, but it would take two years before she could afford the needed repairs and retrofitting to make it her own.

Appropriately, she debuted the truck on Halloween 2014, taking it first to WDAS-FM, where her brother helped get her an interview with radio host Patty Jackson. She then went to North Philly and Spring Garden, where she gave out candy for free.

“People wanted to buy stuff and I said, ‘But Halloween is free candy day,’ ” she recalled.

In the beginning, Lackey drove the truck around Philly, but she’s found more success taking it to events where she can park and people can come to her, like the Made in America Festival, the July Fourth celebration on the Parkway, and, of course, the Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival. Recently, she catered an event for Urban Outfitters corporate headquarters, and when the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, she brought her Candygyrl truck to the championship parade.

“As soon as the Eagles won that night, everybody was hyped and the only thing I was thinking about is, I need to be at that parade with my truck,” she said.

Lackey also sells her candy online at candygyrl.com, has subscription boxes available, and recently opened a candy cart at the Fashion District.

While she doesn’t make her own candy, Lackey does make her own creations — like her cotton candy boat and a candy charcuterie board — and she packages her candy in unique ways, like her popular halal gummy mix, or her party mix bags, which consist of “only the good candies.”

Lackey stays on top of the latest in candy land by attending candy conferences and following TikTok, which she said is driving candy trends among young people.

Some candies, like Mary Janes and Caramel Creams, don’t sell well, so Lackey has discontinued those, but one of her more unusual offerings, chocolate-covered Swedish Fish, has been a hit.

Lackey said she doesn’t have a favorite candy anymore, but she does have three she eats all the time — gummy cola bottles; peach rings; and strawberry licorice laces, just like the kind she used to buy from Miss Cookie as a kid.

“It’s so crazy, I never thought I’d be selling candy as a business,” she said. “But when I’m on my truck, I’m happy. It brings me happiness.”

Know someone in the Philadelphia area whose story deserves to be told — or someone whose story you’d like to know? Send suggestions for We the People profiles to Stephanie Farr at sfarr@inquirer.com or call her at 215-854-4225. Send tips via Twitter to @FarFarrAway.

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