07/07/2022
Geancarlos Pujols receives his food from Casey O’Brien June 29 at St. Odilia Catholic Church in Shoreview during a weekly summer event called Food Truck Wednesdays. O’Brien was offering a food truck at Maternity of MMSA Catholic School in St. Paul on Thursdays, then expanded to include St. Odilia after reaching out to let the school and parish know. Kelli Schmitz, chair of the Parent Action Association at St. Odilia, has been coordinating the event at St. Odilia since the first one took place June 1. “It’s been a big hit; a lot of people are really excited about it,” said Schmitz, who has two children at the school. The goal was to bring together students and their families with parishioners at St. Odilia who don’t have children at the school, as a way to “bridge some of the divide in our community between the parish and the school,” she said. Pujols moved to Shoreview a month ago and lives across the street from the school, which he is exploring as a place to send his 5-year-old daughter. “This is our first time over here,” said Pujols, who also has a younger child he might enroll at St. Odilia in the future. “We’ve seen the signs (for Food Truck Wednesdays) and we see the kids after school all the time, so we just came over to check it out.” Three food trucks come to St. Odilia every Wednesday and begin serving food at 5 p.m. An estimated 250 people came June 29 to the trucks, called Gray Duck Concessions, LLC (where O’Brien works on Wednesdays and Thursdays), Steven D's (owned and operated by an alumnus of St. Odilia Catholic School) and Tii Cup. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT