Local nonprofit Food for the Hungry hosts food trucks every Tuesday that donate a portion of their profits to Syrian refugees, now through October.
The event, called Food Trucks for the Hungry, takes place in the parking lot of Food for the Hungry’s Phoenix location on Washington and 12th streets. Food for the Hungry Creative Director Doug Penick, who coined the idea of using food trucks to raise funds, said the organization is spread across 18 countries with more than 2,000 staff members worldwide.
“We’re already there,” Penick said. “We’re there whether we are raising money through the food trucks or not, but the money that’s going to be raised through October from the food trucks are going to be used to support those efforts.”
The organization raises money in different ways — the food trucks are only one avenue. The food trucks will donate 10 percent of their profits toward providing food and health care for the displaced, Penick said.
“For us, Food for the Hungry, we work on a global scale and we respond to crisis all the time and this is an opportunity to invite people into our parking lot, our building, to maybe get to know us a little better, understand that there’s a lot more at play,” he said.
Customers trickled into the parking lot Tuesday, but Penick said he expects attendance to increase when people learn there is something they can do to help.
“I love it; I think it’s great that we get to come out and do something fun but know that it’s going towards something good,” said Katie Carter, University of Arizona nursing student and previous employee at Food for the Hungry.
The organization was founded in 1971 and is known for its relief work in other countries, but by hosting the event at their office’s parking lot, the staff said they hope to build relationships with the community.
“We are a pretty large humanitarian organization sitting here in downtown Phoenix, and I don’t think that many people in Phoenix know about us,” Mike Meyers, Food for the Hungry’s chief development officer, said.
The group hopes to engage the Phoenix community with larger global issues, Meyers said.
This effort resonated with members of the community like John Gustafson, owner of the Kicks Frozen Yogurt food truck, which participated in the event Tuesday.
“I feel bad for the refugees,” Gustafson said. “We need to do all we can for the people that are having to leave their home to start over to start a new life before they get killed. A blessed nation, a blessed people that we are, we should do everything that we can do.”
The food trucks will be in Food for the Hungry’s parking lot from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesdays until the end of October with different food trucks every week.
“We’re going to be doing this for a long time, even past when the headline is gone,” Penick said. “We are going to keep doing these food truck events and doing the work of Food for the Hungry.”
Contact the reporter at Courtney.Pedroza@asu.edu.
