DEEP RIVER

Local non-profit A Little Compassion (ALC) has acquired a new food trailer as an extension of its Nest Coffee House which will debut at the organization's fifth annual Lantern Illumination Celebration.

Rick Willis, the development director at ALC, said the vibrantly colored, vintage truck featuring The Nest’s logo is “very much exactly like The Nest itself—inviting and warm.”

The trailer was purchased in 2022 through a $20,000 Project Innovation grant from NBCUniversal and Telemundo. NBCUniversal saw that ALC was a non-profit considering the expansion of “innovative opportunities” in the area worth supporting, said Jane Moen, executive director of ALC.

“We were talking about one of our challenges is to sort of get the word out beyond the River Valley area about what we can do so that we can grow and have more programs in other areas,” said Moen.

Moen also gave thanks to the Overabove advertising agency in Chester for its support.

The truck will provide the opportunity for neurodiverse people to serve a broader audience through their work with the non-profit. It will also help others to better familiarize themselves with neurodiverse people and recognize their abilities to provide a service.

“Once you start interacting with folks who are neurodiverse—and especially those who their challenges [might be] a little more obvious, [which] for some people can be intimidating or scary—once you start doing that, it just opens that inclusion piece and exposure and experience that we want other people to have,” said Moen. “When they come across another person that's neurodiverse, they're able to be more kind and more compassionate and more inclusive.”

Along with making its debut at the Lantern Illumination Celebration, the trailer will also be serving up food on Saturday, June 1 at the Middletown PrideFest, where it can spread its message of inclusion and positivity, said non-profit directors.

The lantern event will take place in the cafeteria at Valley Regional High School on Saturday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. Pending good weather, there may be a section of the event also held outside of the indoor space, said Willis. The trailer will be providing the food for the event.

Willis said this year’s celebration will be “unique” and “very different from years past,” featuring a different venue than Plattwood Park.

“Whereas we associated with the water aspects in years past, we have shifted on land,” said Willis. “We’re turning it into an illuminated area that people can walk through and experience. Additionally to that, we have an artist showcase featuring our autistic and neurodiverse artists that have been through a mentorship program with local artists in the area that we’ve been putting together.”

Just like the trailer and the food and beverages at The Nest, the artist showcase will be an extension of the coffee house’s Possibilities Boutique, where its interns have their own homemade art and craft projects for sale. Willis said the artistic work of the interns and the tutelage they have received will hit a high point at the lantern event’s showcase.

“It’s basically all culminating into a showcase that's going to be happening during the lantern event itself,” Willis said.