From March through November, the Lincoln Fresh Food Truck makes 14 stops in low income areas or that have high rates of childhood obesity to distribute free fruits and vegetables.
Coordinator James Reilly tells KLIN News this is a program through the Food Bank of Lincoln that is dedicated to getting nutritious food to those in need free of charge.
Reilly says, “This program has been around since 2019. The pandemic shut everything down in 2020 and 2021 was a partial season. The numbers compared to last year have skyrocketed. A couple of stops have remained the same but others have doubled and others have quadrupled. One stop in particular last year where I was used to 40, 50, 60 people, we are seeing 160 to 170.” Since March, 12,000 Lincoln residents have received fresh produce through the program.
Reilly says stops are at rec and community centers and at Head Start locations. He tries to make about seven stops a week to distribute the fresh produce. Fruit and vegetables are donated by area gardeners and farmers, grocery stores, and from the Food Bank directly.
To find out locations and dates, go to lincolnfoodbank.org.
Photo courtesy of Lincoln Food Bank.