Brookline's 'Food Truck Friday' Aims To Bring Residents Together

BROOKLINE, MA — A summer Friday night at the park, with some good music, fun food options, and maybe a fire engine or two, sounds like the perfect recipe to bring people out of their houses and down to Brookline's Driscoll School field and playground for an hour or two. Getting those people to meet each other, and exchange some thoughts and ideas they might not typically consider, is the goal of the Commission of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Relations in its "Food Truck Friday"

The third annual festival takes place this Friday from 4 p.m.-7:30 p.m. It is set to feature three food trucks, children's games, and tours of Brookline Fire and Department of Public Works trucks.

"It gives people an opportunity to meet their neighbors," said Kelly Race, a chairperson on the commission. "It's easier to understand people, and the differences between people, if you know them."

Race said the event has attracted about 400 people each of the first two years with the hope this Friday being that additional advertising and publicity will help increase that number. There will be food for sale from Trolley Dogs, Frozen Hoagies and the Chicken and Rice Guys, as well as an opportunity to learn more about the Commission of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Relations, as well as other advocacy groups in Brookline.

"If anyone is interested in volunteering in town there are a lot of boards and commissions where they can get involved in the community," she said.

Race said the Commission of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Relations was reconstituted in 2015 as a way to bring new people and a fresh set of ideas to the mission to increase diversity in the town and school workforce, ensure fair-housing initiatives, oversee cultural events, and respond to any discrimination claims.

"Before that there wasn’t enough outreach in the organization," she said. "People didn’t understand what we did."

She said events like "Food Truck Friday" provide a good chance for residents to learn about the work the commission does in a way that is more block party than informational seminar.

"The feedback that we’ve gotten is that it’s a really nice event for the kids," Race said. "Kids to a better job of interacting with each other than adults do. But when the kids do it, it has the effect of bringing adults into the conversation with each other."