Food truck festival to focus on community building

Local food trucks, activities and live entertainment will be part of Sunday’s Food Truck Rally in the Valley, with a portion of the food sales going to the Centre House Homeless Shelter of Housing Transitions.

Eight local food vendors will set up in downtown State College, where South Allen Street will be closed to traffic — between Beaver Avenue and just past the State College Municipal Building. It’s the place to try World Fare Catering, El Gringo, Street Meat, Nomad Kitchen, Rosie’s Perogies, The Weiner Wagon, Happy Valley Chef Brick Pizza Oven and Lewistown Creamery. Local band Pure Cane Sugar will entertain with live music from 12:30-2:30 p.m. and family-friendly activities will include Alpha Omicron Pi with face painting and carnival games and The Makery’s mobile craft table.

Kristen Koshko, the development and community relations coordinator for Housing Transitions, said planning the event has been a group effort.

“It’s been about getting permission to close Allen Street, coordinating local food trucks to participate, getting the word out about this event, coordinating with local businesses to get their involvement and working with a local sorority (Alpha Omicron Pi) to coordinate child and family-friendly activities,” she said.

Food Truck Rally in the Valley is designed to be a community building event where families and individuals can come out and meet new neighbors, enjoy some delicious food and learn about the services that are available to local residents. Housing Transitions serves more than 2,000 Centre County residents annually who are struggling with a housing crisis.

“One of our programs is Centre House Homeless Shelter, which is the only shelter in our area that is professionally staffed 24/7 and open to men, women, children and their families,” Koshko said. “We also provide housing case management services, transitional housing, adult services, first time low-income home buyer education and assistance and a local food pantry within our shelter that is open 24/7.”

The nonprofit’s development and community relations committee has been looking to try new and unique fundraisers/events in addition to its annual fundraisers. Board member Amanda DiPolvere posed the food truck event idea after she attended one in New York City.

“It’s something that had never been done in our area before, which is surprising since we have so many local food vendors that offer up delicious food across our area,” Koshko said. “We thought it would be a great community-building event that would be family-friendly and free to the public. We would be thrilled if this became an annual event.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2017 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Food truck festival to focus on community building."