Vote Today: Mission Street-Food Seed Fund Competes for Support

A still from Mission Opportunity's Yoxi video.

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Today is your last chance to vote for a team of Mission residents vying to launch a seed fund for street-food vendors. Team Mission Opportunity -- Mission Community Market organizer Jeremy Shaw, Alicia Villanueva (Tamales Los Maya), and local artist Sergio De La Torre -- is competing in a novel online-video fundraising effort from Yoxi.tv to "reinvent" fast food.

According to a Slashfood article about the Yoxi competition, it's a mashup of American Idol and Kickstartr. For each of three rounds, participating teams make a video explaining a project they'd like to start; a panel of judges submits comments regarding the viability of the ideas, and then site visitors vote on their favorite team -- and possibly pledge money to fund it. Yoxi's inaugural fast-food contest drew several college teams as well as a group of Michigan marketing pros who want to start a Groupon-like operation (well, it's a little more complicated than that, but the team is currently in first place).

The winner gets $5,000 from Yoxi, a New York-based charitable trust, plus all money raised from site, which Yoxi will match. The Mission Opportunity team is partnering with La Cocina (no competition there), and is hoping to raise $40,000 to provide startup grants to help small-scale vendors pay for permits, commercial kitchen space, and equipment. "We're just trying to give small vendors that foothold to get into the market," Shaw says. While Mission Opportunity has been the judges' favorite, it's currently in second place.

The two teams with the most support move on to the finals, where they'll have to make a third 60-second video presenting the project's marketing and advertising plan. If you'd like to help Mission Opportunity move on to the finals, log on to the site and then vote before 11:59 p.m. today.