A four-wheeled community café is making its rounds to feed Schuylkill County.

Catholic Charities Community Café food truck began service in Pottsville in June, and since then has been rolling to Tamaqua, Mahanoy City, McAdoo and other locales.

“The Community Café food truck has been a dream of Catholic Charities for a few years, as we looked for ways to expand service throughout Schuylkill County,” said Andrea Neagle, managing director of Catholic Charities. “We sought grant funding from several funders in 2023, but it was because of a generous grant directly from the Diocese of Allentown that finally turned our vision into reality.”

Operations started at a spot near St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church on Mahantongo Street in Pottsville.

“Because this was a completely new endeavor, we started slowly, with just a few service days a week,” Neagle said.

As summer progressed, the Pottsville site increased its service to three days a week and recently began serving dinners.

The food truck then added 10 county communities to its service area. This week, it is scheduled to visit Mahanoy City and Ringtown.

It will return to St. John XXII Roman Catholic Church on Pine Street in Tamaqua at the end of the month, likely from noon-1:30 p.m. Oct. 30. Schedules are posted weekly on Catholic Charities, Diocese of Allentown, Facebook page.

“Father (Robert) Finlan, pastor of St. John XXIII parish, kindly opens his parish hall to all patrons so that they can come in and eat meals on-site, if they like,” Neagle said. “The model in Tamaqua is ideal, because the parish always has volunteers ready for us when we arrive, and generously shares its parish hall space with the community.”

During each of the July and August visits to Tamaqua, the community café served more than 245 meals.

“Tamaqua is the current record holder by a wide margin,” Neagle said.

There are no eligibility requirements to receive a meal, which typically includes a protein, starch, vegetable or fruit, dessert and drink.

To date, the food truck has served more than 4,500 meals.

Neagle noted that the grant requires Catholic Charities to dedicate the truck’s use primarily to Schuylkill County.

“In just the few months we have deployed the truck in Schuylkill County, we have received inquiries across the diocese about expanding our fleet into the four other counties (Berks, Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton) served by Catholic Charities Diocese of Allentown,” she said.

In addition to the grant from the diocese, the community café receives some food donations from Helping Harvest. Neagle said a “huge proportion of the funding” for the truck’s operation, staffing and food comes from private donations in support of the food ministries.

Catholic Charities will launch its holiday appeal on Nov. 1, with a new food ministry mascot called “Phil the Bag.”

More information can be found at https://www.catholiccharitiesad.org/.