GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The Aging & Disability Resource Center (ADRC) of Brown County and Grounded Café have received a grant, allowing them to create Wisconsin’s first fully accessible food truck designed for workers with disabilities.
The $100,000 grant was provided David L. and Rita E. Nelson Family Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
“In order for us to be able to carry forward our mission we need to take our show on the road,” said Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach. “By allowing us to build this food truck, really puts us as a trendsetter in terms of the Midwest.”
ADRC Director Devon Christianson says for years, they’ve worked to address issues of high unemployment rates for people with disabilities and the ‘power of systemic ageism and discrimination’ for many looking to find employment.
“Let’s help people get employed and be in this community in real and respectful and dignified ways, because we can change how people see people,” Christianson said. “Training persons with disabilities to be at the front of the house. To be in, and living amongst, all of us. Working, gaining skills, and so people can talk and connect and be with each other…Our trainees will be serving people at the front of the house and on the road traveling with us throughout the community serving customers throughout all of Brown County.”
“We know that we’re giving individuals who historically did not have an opportunity to be part of the work force purpose in life,” Streckenbach added.
The ADRC says the grant will make it possible to change the look of a “government” meal while increasing access to healthy food and community resources. The food truck will offer an efficient and convenient model of service for ADRC and Grounded Café to reach community members. Being mobile will help to remove some transportation barriers, such as navigating unfamiliar roads or finding rides to ADRC, and can increase offerings in underserved communities in Brown County.
“The concept behind the food truck is taking what we know works, and bringing it out into the community beyond our brick and mortar walls,” Christianson said. “We’ve worked really hard to get out into the community, a challenge that all agencies like ours face with critical issues around access to all of the programs and services where people might live…A lot of this is going to be potentially in rural communities, smaller communities that are around the area. But we also want to be downtown and having people see us.”
The food truck will be custom built in 2022 by partnering with Caged Crow, a company based in St. Germain, Wisconsin.
“There’s only a few of these that are going to be built for the capabilities allowing individuals with disabilities to actually perform and work on site at another location,” Streckenbach said.
“This food truck is going to be specially outfitted so that people with disabilities are actually able to produce the food and come along for the ride – and not only come along, but actually lead,” Christianson said. “This is going to have to be a fairly large food truck, so 20-feet [long] type of situation. It’s going to need to have a ramp that can get people in and out who might be in wheelchairs, different heights of the counters that people can actually work on the counters and be able to reach refrigeration.”
Christianson is hoping to hire at least two more part-time people who would serve in more of a leadership role on the truck, along with people with disabilities to keep it running.
For more information visit www.adrcofbrowncounty.org.
