Presbyterian Village North granted funds for a mobile kitchen

In June 2020 the Forefront Living Foundation granted Presbyterian Village North the funds for a food trailer to provide the residents an alternative dining option.

Director of Dining Services, Kelly Cook, came up with the idea because construction plans in late 2020 would cause the dining rooms to be under construction. When the pandemic hit in March, COVID-19 caused PVN to suspend dining room service, furthering the need for a mobile kitchen.

“Our first goal was to provide an alternative option for dining as we were looking ahead to construction and the renovation of the dining areas,” said Cook. “For now, it will serve as an alternative dining venue during construction and with our COVID restrictions.”

The food trailer now serves as an outdoor option for residents to move about the campus and have meals outside of their residences.

“We are all excited to have such a unique outlet to showcase the talent of the culinary and service team,” said Cook. “To our knowledge, there is not a similar concept being used in North Texas. It is great to provide the residents with another venue for showing the creativity of the dining teammates.”

The teammates voted on what to call the trailer. The choices were: Meals Matter, Forefront Feaster, Forefront Food Front, The Culinary Cruiser and The Chew-Chew Truck.  

“When we used the trailer for a staff appreciation event, teammates were asked to vote for their favorite,” said Cook. “HR then tallied the votes and gave us the winner, The Culinary Cruiser!”

The trailer was custom designed by Smoking Joe’s Trailers in Marion, Texas.

“We worked with their team on size of the trailer and equipment placement in order to provide the best dining options for our community,” said Cook. “We were not going to be limited on style or concept, so the trailer needed to be as versatile as we could get it. We see many uses for The Culinary Cruiser for years to come.”

For more information about dining at PVN, visit presvillagenorth.org/dining.