Community Spotlight: Thy Kingdom Crumb

At Carson Wentz’s charity softball game on June 1, he unveiled a new project undertaken by his AO1 Foundation — a food truck called Thy Kingdom Crumb.

“When we launched the foundation, Carson and I had several conversations about our mission,” says Zach Wentz, Carson’s brother and executive director of the AO1 Foundation. “We wanted to uplift individuals and communities all around the world, but wanted to make sure we were doing something in the city we now call home.”

After brainstorming with Connect Church, the idea for the food truck was born and Thy Kingdom Crumb would travel throughout the Philadelphia region, giving away quality food that’s cooked on the truck.

However, it would do more than provide physical nourishment for those in need.

“It will go into areas of high need as well as into areas where there’s a spiritual need, an emotional need,” says Wentz. “Sometimes people just need to be looked in the eye after a long day of work and have someone say, ‘Hey, we care about you. What can we do for you today? We see you, we love you and want to hear your story.”

In addition to having staff on the truck preparing food, there will also be a street team that engages with people in line for Thy Kingdom Crumb.

“We’re trying to show people the tangible love of God and the hope of Christ through it,” says Wentz. “I think we can do that tangibly by giving people free food and talking to them. Food is such a glue. It brings people together for everything. No matter where you’re from, what language you speak, who doesn’t love good food? We’re going to be feeding them physically, but hopefully emotionally as well.”

So what kind of food will Thy Kingdom Crumb serve? The short answer is everything.

“We had a meeting on Friday and that’s our next objective — to identify a menu,” Wentz says. “It can be anything from burgers to sliders to breakfast food to coffee and crumb cake to pancakes to a Philly cheesesteak. When we designed the truck, we designed it to be extremely versatile on the inside. We want to serve food that seasonally matches where we’re at. If we’re at a football game, how can we get some wings and cheeseburger sliders? If we’re down the shore, how can we get some ice cream and smoothies to serve?”

Not having a specific menu offering did make naming the food truck a bit of a challenge.

“The name was just as difficult to come up with as the design of the truck. A lot of food trucks specifically serve certain foods and here we are trying to serve everything,” Wentz says. “We wanted to have the name play off of faith, making it more than about the food itself. We thought about it for two months, but the minute this name came up, we knew that was the one.”

For both Wentz brothers, giving back to the community has always been a big part of their lives.

“We’ve seen so many charitable acts as kids growing up and now that we have the resources to do it, it’s pretty cool,” Wentz notes. “Carson says that his football career has a time frame, has a window. This charitable foundation doesn’t have limitations. He wants his legacy be more about what he did off the field than on it.”

Thy Kingdom Crumb will have its first official run at the end of August at Lincoln Financial Field during an Eagles game.

If you’d like to get involved with Thy Kingdom Crumb, visit: thykingdomcrumb.org.