Courtesy Soulcial Kitchen
One of these trucks will be helping out East St. Louis residents today.
As part of a “Love Thy Neighbor” initiative started by Soulcial Kitchen, the organization is headed to East St. Louis to serve 100 hot meals to those in need. A Soulcial Kitchen-branded food truck will head to East St. Louis City Hall (301 Riverpark Drive) in order to pass out the meals. Individuals can pick up their meals at noon.
Today’s event is a larger piece of a community-sponsored program. A press release details that local businesses can help facilitate these events in underserved neighborhoods in Madison, St. Clair, Clinton and Washington County, Illinois at any time.
“We started our ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ initiative as a way for local businesses to sponsor one of our Soulcial Kitchen food trucks, enabling us to enter an underserved, vulnerable area and serve 100 hot meals,” founder John Michel said in a press release. “But, we wanted a way for the community to also help as a whole. So we expanded the program so anyone can ALL help even more neighbors in need, especially now with so many of our nation’s citizens struggling or facing difficult circumstances.”
Soulcial Kitchen is made up of multiple brands – such as A Fine Swine BBQ, El Guaco Taco and Soulcial Smashburgers – and operates as a virtual kitchen. With a food truck garden and a fleet of their own trucks, Soulcial Kitchen’s mission is to to reduce food insecurity. Their efforts began with a “Currency of Caring” meal-token program, where guests can purchase an $8 token that can be gifted to someone in need of a hot meal. For every 100 tokens purchased, Soulcial Kitchen arranges to give out 100 hot meals, similar to today’s work.
Food tokens can be purchased at any Soulcial Kitchen-powered truck or inside their brick and mortar spot in Swansea (127 Northbelt East). Soon, individuals will be able to purchase the tokens online at www.soulcialkitchen.com.
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