Durham residents and Dukies who crave grilled cheese sandwiches may soon have a chance to satisfy their craving and raise money for community organizations at the same time.
The Liberacion Juice Station stopped serving smoothies last year, but its owner Zulayka Santiago hopes to keep the school-bus-turned-food-truck running by converting the vehicle into a grilled cheese vendor. She is offering the bus at a reduced price to Elena Everett—former community media director of the left-wing, Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice—who aims to use the bus to give opportunities to the city’s low-income youth.
The effort is being coordinated with South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces, Inc., an organization that recruits young people to grow food locally. Santiago and Everett eventually hope that revenue raised from the planned Grilled Cheese Bus will promote social justice. A kick-off party was held March 19, and the Grilled Cheese Bus will be making rounds in Durham as soon as Everett raises enough money.
“The most important part of this project are the young people,” Everett wrote in an email. “All revenue generated by the bus will go toward projects that [they] vote on—projects that will improve our communities and create positive social change.”
The menu will strive for quality over quantity, serving mostly grilled cheese sandwiches but also allowing customers to add locally-grown, exotic add-ons such as pimento cheese, agua frescas, pickled okra and tomato soup, she added.
Although Everett said the quality of the food will be a priority, she emphasized that the social justice component is equally as important as the food. The bus will help young Durhamites by providing them job opportunities, teaching them social entrepreneurship skills and offering them a safe social outlet.
“The Grilled Cheese Bus is committed to green practices and the local economy,” Everett said. “All our bread will be made by local bakers, and many of our ingredients will be seasonal and produced by North Carolina farmers. We will use only biodegradable products to serve our sandwiches, and we run our bus on biodiesel.”
She added that young people will become proficient in areas ranging from social networking to finance.
“Young people who are hired will learn marketing skills, culinary skills and financial literacy [by] learning how to develop a menu, read a spreadsheet and work a Twitter feed.”
Although the Liberacion Juice Station mostly served downtown Durham, Everett said she hopes to drive the Grilled Cheese Bus to Duke’s campus soon after operations begin.
Junior Caitlin Ryan said she thinks the bus sounds like an interesting idea.
“We need more food options, and it will be for a good cause,” she said. “I really hope they come to Duke.”
The project will launch a campaign March 30 on kickstarter.com—a website that helps entrepreneurs finance their initiatives—to help get the bus on the road. Everett’s goal is to raise $8,000, which will help her maintain the bus and give her the start-up capital needed to launch the project.
This article has been modified to reflect the fact that Elena Everett is the former media director for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. She left the organization in May 2010.
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