After serving their last customers, food truck employees around the country typically have one more stop on their itinerary: a commissary. That’s where they park the truck for maintenance, cleaning, and restocking for the next day or shift.

Whether trucks are required by law to park at commissaries—as is the case in many cities—or use them for convenience, commissaries provide many services. They’ve been around for decades, working with traditional commercial food trucks, but with the rise of gourmet trucks, commissaries are in the spotlight.

While reporting on L.A.’s food trucks for National Geographic magazine, I found one of the largest commissaries in L.A., La Raza Foods, a three-acre facility in the San Fernando Valley that bills itself as the “Food Trucks