Vendor bets future on corn cart

A SMALL food cart selling cooked sweet corn in barangay Lahug, Cebu City, provides a small but steady income for 25-year-old John Ren Bertulfo.

The stall is  located near a jeepney stop across JY Square where commuters, pedestrians and  call center agents are his main customers.

He  sells boiled corn on the  cob for P25 each and corn kernels mixed with milk, cheese or butter.

Bertulfo left his family in western Cebu to find a job in Cebu City. When he couldn’t get hired,  he decided to set up his own business.

“People like to eat,” Bertulfo said in Cebuano.

“At least, this is better than stealing or  doing illegal activities which other people resort to.”

He said he had long planned to try the food business and saw that corn was in season.

With his savings of P1,250, Bertulfo built a wooden cart and bought cooking gear.

He gets a weekly  supply of  50 kilos of fresh corn in barangay Busay.  Every day he gets to sell about 40 corncobs or about 20 kilos.

With this he earns about P1,000 a day, he said.

At 8 a.m., Bertulfo’s cart is ready for customers. He  closes by  9 p.m. to 10 p.m. or when most of his corn products are sold.

He said the income is barely enough for the necessities of his 1-year-old daughter, whom he left in Barili town.

“Most of what I earn, I send to my child,” he said.

To save money, he sleeps near the cart instead of finding a room to rent.

His brother also has a food cart in Carcar town, south Cebu.  Every week, they trade places.

One of the challenges of sidewalk vending in the city is that he misses his family in the province.

He said if he can earn more, he can afford to visit them.

Occasionally, he spends P10 on a lottery ticket.

“We’ll never know. I might get lucky,” he said.

Bertulfo, a high school graduate, said he plans to finish his studies and perhaps expand his small business.

For now, his focus is the sweet corn cart whose income helps him raise his daughter.

“I want her to have a better future,” he said.

“For now, she comes  first. I have other plans in life but I’ll take it one step at a time.”