AfriThrive started five years ago to help feed food insecure people of African descent.
Since then, it has grown into an organization that delivers food to 300 family’s weekly while growing its own produce on a farm in Colesville. It also educates and trains people on how to eat nutritiously the foods they grew up on.
On Tuesday, the organization took another step forward by unveiling a refrigerated truck that will allow it to store food longer. Currently, AfriThrive sometimes turns down food donations for fear the items would spoil before the Friday delivery.
“It’s transformational,”AfriThrive Founder and CEO Truphena Choti said of the truck. It enables Montgomery County residents of African descent to access fresh, nutritious and ethnically appropriate foods.
“It gives people dignity and opportunity,” she said.
The new truck was purchased with donations from The MorningStar Foundation, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and the Philip L. Graham Fund.
While Choti was extremely happy, she noted, “Our work is still not done.” The next step is to obtain a warehouse to store food and supplies.
Heather Bruskin, director of the county’s Office of Food Systems Resilience, took one look at the brightly colored truck and declared that it is “the perfect embodiment of a joy ride.”
Following the truck unveiling, attendees were treated to pumpkin squash with peppers, mandazi and beef and vegetable samosas.
