Penn students support small business development

Posted by on March 10, 2014

From Penn student Eliana Machefsky:

It was recommended that I reach out to you to let you know about an exciting project that I am working on with two dining hall workers at Penn.

Troy Harris and Kareem Wallace, who have worked in Penn dining for 14 and 9 years, respectively, have long had dreams of starting their own food truck. Their food truck, “Grassroots,” will do much more than just serve breakfast and lunch; Troy and Kareem want to open their own business in order to show children in their neighborhoods who are at risk for finding illegal alternatives to legal employment that their options are not limited to degrading, low-wage employment on the one hand, or illegal work on the other. In the words of Troy, “We’ll show kids that there’s somebody to look up to who came from the neighborhood and made it, not by going fast..but by working hard.”

“Grassroots” is about so much more than a food truck. It is about Troy and Kareem following their dream; it is about finding work that is joyful and dignified; it is about workers owning not only the fruits of their labor, but also the labor itself; it is about enabling two men who have so deeply inspired Penn’s campus to share their power with others around them.

We went live with an online fundraiser on crowdtilt earlier this month and we’ve already raised $7,000 of our total $70,000 goal. We’re very excited about our momentum so far, but we need a lot of help to reach our goal.

https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/grassroots-food-with-a-cause