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New Maple-Focused Food Truck Hopes To Help Incarcerated Youths
By
Nell Casey
Published Nov 18, 2013
Modified Nov 18, 2013
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By
Nell Casey
Published Nov 18, 2013
Modified Nov 18, 2013
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The opening of a new food truck can often sound like white noise amidst the already saturated mobile food market. But one new food truck debuting in December stands out from the pack with a noteworthy menu and a unique social justice agenda. Meet Snowday, a forthcoming food truck with a maple-infused menu of sweet and savory dishes. On their own, the promise of Maple Grilled Cheese and Pulled Pork, Bacon and Pesto Brie Pancake Poppers would be enough to ignite our taste buds, but it's how the truck operates that truly stands out.
During her time as a teaching fellow at Riker's Island, entrepreneur and owner Jordyn Lexton was dismayed at the bleak prospects given to inmates who were incarcerated as teenagers. Under New York State law, the minimum age to be tried as an adult is 16, meaning kids who couldn't even obtain driver's licenses were sentenced to hard time behind bars. Hoping to break the recidivism cycle, Lexton came up with the idea for Drive Change, an advocacy group that runs a fleet of food trucks that would employ former inmates and provide them with valuable work experience and skills to help them stay out of prison.
Following a year-long stint as a manager at Kimchi Taco truck, working with nonprofits who help former inmates adapt to life after prison and a successful $90,000 Indigogo campaign, Lexton is finally ready to debut the food truck and start helping young former inmates. Co.Exist reports that she decided on the maple-based menu following a trip to Canada, where she sampled "sugar on snow," or hot maple syrup poured into fresh snow. If this first truck succeeds, Lexton plans to open more trucks to help more youths.
[via Co.Exist]
Tagged
drive change
food truck
Jordyn Lexton
maple syrup
Rikers Island
snowday
Nell Casey
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