December 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 75

Parks & reCreatIon at Work
the Allentown department of Parks
and Recreation partnered with the
health Bureau to pilot " fruits and
veggies on the Move. "

Parks Keep On Truckin'
By Joann Greco

Food trucks offer more variety in park
fare, but not without controversy

F

or Adrian Benepe, the
New York City Department
of Parks and Recreation
commissioner, the epiphany
came a few years ago. All of
a sudden, he recalls, unlicensed vendors
from Mexico and Central America starting
showing up at soccer games in Red Hook,
Brooklyn, to sell ethnic food to the players who gathered there every weekend. It
meant something, he knew, and a survey
of park users offered confirmation. " The
desire for a greater variety of food options
came up again and again, " Benepe says.
Fast forward to 2011, and while the city's
vendors didn't completely bid goodbye to
dirty water franks and soggy pretzels, this
summer a crop of new ones began offering

exotic items such as kimchi fried rice and
Indian dosa pancakes. And New Yorkers
were not alone in enjoying this newfound
variety, either. From fresh fruits to Belgian
waffles to gourmet coffee, urban park users across the country now can choose
from a wealth of food and beverage options
to go with their rollerblades and frisbees. 
For park systems, the trend marks a
relatively new movement that reflects
what's been going on outside their
boundaries for awhile now. 
" There's been this explosion of food
carts and trucks on the streets of New
York City, " Benepe says. " It's much more
of a free market compared to the parks,
where we've always kept a tight rein on
how and where food gets sold. "  

Over in Allentown, Pennsylvania, it took
the appearance of one illegal ice cream
truck-and then another and then another-at a destination playground in Cedar
Creek Parkway for Greg Weitzel, director
of the Department of Parks and Recreation,
to sit up and take notice. " When I saw these
ice cream trucks surrounding the park, it
struck a nerve, " Weitzel says. " They were
willing to come and break the rules because they knew more than a thousand
kids were there on weekend days. We recognized that there's definitely a market. "  
Now, Weitzel plans to issue a request
for services so that by next summer parksanctioned trucks will be in place. " Our
mission at the playground is getting kids
active and away from their computers

w w w . N R P A . O R G    D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1    Parks

& Recreation

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December 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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