Mobile soup kitchens take food, vaccine to Detroit's poorest

Salvation Army mobile soup kitchen trucks are rolling through some of Detroit's poorest neighborhoods delivering food and COVID-19 vaccines

DETROIT -- Keenon Carreker walked up to the Salvation Army mobile soup kitchen parked in one of the poorest areas of Detroit for the big hot dogs that came inside bags of food passed out to the city’s needy. He left with a meal and his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. “It helped being right here in my neighborhood,” said Carreker, 52, who otherwise was in no hurry to get vaccinated. Five people received vaccine doses Wednesday, bringing the total to 45 doses given over the past four weeks through the program designed to reach those who have little to no access to churches, community centers or other places where vaccines are being given. Mobile care teams consisting of nurses and a peer support specialist accompany the Bed & Bread trucks as they cruise Detroit, which lags far behind the state and nearby communities in the percentage of people vaccinated.