How one Michigan food truck went from seasonal shutdowns to doubling sales

Editor’s Note: This story is part of Momentum: The people and companies shaping what’s next, a weekly series that explores new ventures, founder support, and the resources powering entrepreneurship and small businesses across seven counties in Southwest Michigan. This project is sponsored by Southwest Michigan First.

KALAMAZOO, MI — Winter can be tough for small businesses. Especially when they’re traditionally fair-weather operations.

That has been the case with Munchie Man Food Truck, a St. Joseph-based business whose Philly Cheesesteaks, Reuben sandwiches, and half-pound hamburgers inspired MiBrew Trail followers to vote it Best Food Truck in 2024, and moved readers of The Herald-Palladium to name it Best Food Truck in 2025. But Mother Nature has not been a fan, making travel difficult for the 4-year-old mobile eatery during the cold season.

Munchie Man’s 1985 GMC Gruman (the kind of box van often used by UPS) had ongoing mechanical issues, making it too difficult to operate in winter and expensive to maintain. 

“Every year until this winter, we’d shut down, and I’d go find a job,” says Brian Tufnell, who owns and operates the business with his wife Janet.  So they found help.

Working with the South Haven Regional Business Hub and the Michigan Economic Development  Corp., they learned what they needed to know to grow. They found a way to buy a second, more modern food truck, and they are working to double their sales.”

Brian Tufnell now says, “This is the first winter I didn’t have to go out and find a job.”

He and his wife participated in the South Haven Regional Business Hub’s 2025 Growth Series. 

“It provides 26 weeks of free programming to small business owners like Janet and Brian,” says Elizabeth Berhard,  executive director of the Regional Business Hub. 

“And alongside that 26 weeks of programming, they receive one-on-one mentorship with one of our mentors within the organization, and that mentor is there to help them with decision-making, all things support for small business, really more as a coach and ally for that business owner.”

Janet Tufnell says she and her husband learned a lot about finance, marketing, taxes, and managing resources.

Brian Tufnell says he originally saw Munchie Man as a job he was doing as a sideline, rather than as a business. “After the Growth Series program, I’ve seen where I had to change a lot of things to make it a business and not a job.”

Bernhard says the Tufnells “also received technical assistance — intensive education around financials, marketing, growing their sales, (and) really knowing their numbers so that they can grow into the future.”  They also received two $4,000 state grants — one to help cover the cost of advertising and accounting materials, and another for equipment.

Munchie Man is now one of six food truck businesses that will be used year-round to provide lunches to shift workers at Holtec Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert. Since decisions were made in 2024 to bring the former Palisades nuclear power plant back online, its location at 27780 Blue Star Highway in Covert has seen days when up to 2,800 people are on site. That includes about 667 Holtec employees and other contractors.

Lori Romeo, organizational effectiveness coordinator for Holtec Palisades, says food trucks have been a great way to feed those workers during their lunch breaks, rather than lose many of them for 60 to 90 minutes as they travel to the nearest restaurants in South Haven. 

As many as 16 food trucks have been rotated in on different days to sell lunches to employees. And the workers love the variety and options, Romeo says. But winter weather sidetracked many of them, and Romeo says she has trimmed the weekly rotation of trucks to about six regular operators.

The recommissioned power plant, which is working to be in full operation by September, opened an in-house cafeteria in November, Romeo says. But she says people look forward to the food trucks. And they really like Munchie Man.

Brian Tufnell, 54, was a restaurant cook when he decided he wanted to start his own business. He is a native of the Coloma area. Janet, 50, was a licensed practical nurse, originally from South Haven. The couple pounced on the opportunity to buy a used food truck in 2021 and started running it as a weekend operation in April of 2022. 

Each of them has two adult children. Only one of them, 31-year-old Dominique, works for the family business. He is the primary cook of Munchie Man’s yellow truck, which is expected to primarily serve events and companies in Berrien County. 

The Tufnells adopted the name Munchie Man as a humorous send-up of Brian’s appetite. He weighed more than 400 lbs. when he started the business and didn’t like the smaller food portions sold in some restaurants. He is now a healthier 250 lbs., but says he tries to provide portions that people have to take home to finish. 

Brian is the primary cook of the red truck, which is being used to circulate to farther locations. During the winter months, it will be used regularly at the Holtec Palisades site. The small business has five employees.

Comparing business now to when it started in 2022, Janet Tufnell says, “The difference between now and then is we would set up and wait for customers. Now we do bookings.”

All their stops are scheduled — from festivals in downtown parks and car races at Kalamazoo Speedway, to corporate meetings and private events at the Paw Paw Yacht Club. Janet does most of that work but continues to be a friendly face in the food trucks.

“One of the key things they struggled with is they had a lot of capacity related to being able to run a year-round business,” Bernhard says. “Their limiter was that their food truck was not seasonal.”

Holtec also wanted Munchie Man to provide year-round catering services for its growing employee base. “But because they didn’t have a year-round food truck, they had to cut the season short when it got cold,” she says.

The second food truck is significant because it stops Munchie Man from stagnating, and it allows the business to meet the demand.

“It was very significant because our customer base has us year-round instead of just summer, spring, and fall,” Brian Tufnell says.

Janet is proud that all the food the business uses is fresh and that dishes are cooked to order. Along with that, she enjoys working with people and enjoys their reaction to the food.

“It’s a fun environment,” she says. “We laugh with our customers. We get to know our customers. We cry with our customers. They cry with us.”

She laughs as she says she is sometimes a “hot mess express.”

Brian Tufnell says he enjoys being his own boss, and he hopes to see the business grow to include five food trucks. 

Janet Tufnell says, “For me, being a nurse, this is giving back (to the community) and helping in a different way. When you see someone smile when they take that first bite of food and say, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe I never had this before.’ It’s just the best feeling ever.”

Although she did not cite numbers, she estimates that the business this year will triple its sales from 2022. With the second food truck, she also expects the business to double what it sold last year.

Understanding where every penny is going, and developing a focus on operating costs, advertising, marketing, and planning for the future, is a lesson that she attributes to the Regional Business Hub’s Growth Series. Janet says, “Before I had all the pieces of the puzzle. I just didn’t know how to put everything together.”

Launched in 2023, South Haven Regional Business Hub provides education, technical support, and mentorship to aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Why should people care?

“Small business drives our economy,” Bernhard says. “Without small businesses, our regional economy suffers. Literally, Munchie Man is feeding the employees who are creating energy that our region will need to grow. Plus, they (the Hufnells) are fun to work with.”