Laserfiche WebLink
PARKS & RECREATION AT WORK <br />The Allentown Department of Parks <br />and Recreation partnered with the <br />Health Bureau to pilot "Fruits and <br />Veggies on the Move." <br />By JoAnn Greco <br />Food trucks offer more variety in park <br />fare, but not without controversy <br />For Adrian Benepe, the <br />New York City Department <br />of Parks and Recreation <br />commissioner, the epiphany <br />came a few years ago. All of <br />a sudden, he recalls, unlicensed vendors <br />from Mexico and Central America starting <br />showing up at soccer games in Red Hook, <br />Brooklyn, to sell ethnic food to the play- <br />ers who gathered there every weekend. It <br />meant something, he knew, and a survey <br />of park users offered confirmation. "The <br />desire for a greater variety of food options <br />came up again and again," Benepe says. <br />Fast forward to 2011, and while the city's <br />vendors didn't completely bid goodbye to <br />dirty water franks and soggy pretzels, this <br />summer a crop of new ones began offering <br />exotic items such as kimchi fried rice and <br />Indian dosa pancakes. And New Yorkers <br />were not alone in enjoying this newfound <br />variety, either. From fresh fruits to Belgian <br />waffles to gourmet coffee, urban park us- <br />ers across the country now can choose <br />from a wealth of food and beverage options <br />to go with their rollerblades and frisbees. <br />For park systems, the trend marks a <br />relatively new movement that reflects <br />what's been going on outside their <br />boundaries for awhile now. <br />"There's been this explosion of food <br />carts and trucks on the streets of New <br />York City," Benepe says. "It's much more <br />of a free market compared to the parks, <br />where we've always kept a tight rein on <br />how and where food gets sold." <br />Over in Allentown, Pennsylvania, it took <br />the appearance of one illegal ice cream <br />truck —and then another and then anoth- <br />er—at a destination playground in Cedar <br />Creek Parkway for Greg Weitzel, director <br />of the Department of Parks and Recreation, <br />to sit up and take notice. "When I saw these <br />ice cream trucks surrounding the park, it <br />struck a nerve," Weitzel says. "They were <br />willing to come and break the rules be- <br />cause they knew more than a thousand <br />kids were there on weekend days. We rec- <br />ognized that there's definitely a market " <br />Now, Weitzel plans to issue a request <br />for services so that by next summer park- <br />sanctioned trucks will be in place. "Our <br />mission at the playground is getting kids <br />active and away from their computers <br />WWW.NRPA.ORG DEC:EMBEI2 2011 <br />Parks & Recreation 69 <br />