'Picnic in the Park' offers food options

Tuesday, Oct. 1, a portion of the parking lot at the Perry Park Center in Perryville was closed while several food trucks set up shop. It was the return of “Picnic in the Park,” a food truck event held for the final time in 2024.

“Picnic in the Park started in August this year,” said Alicia Wibbenmeyer, a marketing assistant with Perry County Tourism. “There was some request from the community for more family-friendly events. At the one in September we had over 400 people in attendance, and the community loved it. They are glad it's on a weekday since our weekends get so saturated with events. It's nice to have a weekday where you don't have to worry about dinner and kids can play on playgrounds and spend some time outside. We had nine food trucks at yesterday's events and one vendor who is a cottage food producer.

Jamie Heuring of Perryville was attending the event for the second time. Seated at one of the picnic tables, she was getting ready to jambalaya and macaroni and cheese topped with barbecue sauce.

“It’s a variety of foods that we don’t typically have here in town,” Heuring said. “You get such a variety.”

Along with her wereTerry Brooks, 13, and Ava Heuring, 7.

Ava was enjoying “brat tots” - bratwurst/tater tots covered in a white cheese sauce - while Terry had seafood/crab rangoon. They also had a sweet dessert option of mini donuts in several flavors: Oreo cookies, maple bacon and Twix.

Heuring visited the food truck fair in September, and while the number of trucks and food options were similar, the way the trucks were organized in the parking lot - parked on the exterior of a large circle with a few picnic tables in the middle - was an improvement.

“I like this layout a lot better,” she said.

Ashley Ervin of Waves Mini Donuts was one of vendors at the Oct. 1 event at the Perry Park Center.

“This is actually the only time our schedule allowed us to come,” Ervin said. “It was an invitation (that worked). We have a pretty good following up here in Perryville, but we just haven’t been able to make it back up here. We service a lot of the schools, then we go to the hospital a lot.”

Ervin said the food trucks at the park provide an option in food choices that people don’t see every day.

“We like doing the food truck and taking it to different towns because it gives people an opportunity to have something different. It’s not your run of the mill same chains in the restaurants that most towns have. Whenever a food truck pulls up in their town, it’s new it’s something different that they may not get all time.”

The plan is to continue the “Picnic in the Park” food truck event in April 2025.

“We are considering expanding our hours for 2025 as well,” Wibbenmeyer said.