First Food Truck Friday Success; Organizers Planning to Add Trucks

RISON - The first Food Truck Friday event held this past Friday, June 21, has been deemed a success by organizers within Rison Shine Community Development and the Pioneer Village.The event is a joint venture between the two organizations under Kickstart Cleveland County.The first of the series, which will continue on the third Friday each month, included food trucks Twistin' Copper Kitchen and Cheesecake on Point. Live music was also provided by duo Laura Caroline and Brian Mullen. The Rison Farmers Market hosted its market of vendors during the event as well."With this being the first one, we learned a lot," said Douglas Boultinghouse, one of the organizers. "We purposely started small with two trucks, one with main course foods, and one with dessert, to make sure the community would show up to (continued from page 1) support the event in Rison.” The community showed up, and that resulted in extended wait times at one of the trucks, and some items selling out at the other.Pioneer Village President Marty Bowlin estimated close to 300 people attended the event, either gathering or picking up dinner or dessert.“All of the Rison Shine and Pioneer Village officers and volunteers have been discussing expanding with additional tmcks for July,” Boultinghouse said.He said when the event was first announced, several trucks reached out to get on the list to be featured.“We’re working on scheduling some of those for July and August now,” he said. “As well as entertainment for July.”Rather than charging fees or commissions, the two organizations are asking for donations from vendors to the Food Truck Friday fund that is used specifically for booking local entertainment at the monthly gather-mgs.Donations are appreciated from the community as well. Anyone interested in donating can see Douglas Boultinghouse at the Cleveland County Herald, or Malinda Berry at My Berry Patch.As local crops con...