MACON, Ga. — What used to be the parking lot of the historic Roxy Theater is now just a big empty space. One community organizer, Weston Stroud, says he has a plan to fill it.
This week, Stroud won a $5,000 grant through the Knight Foundation. He says it will go towards a new project, to bring food trucks and vendors to the Roxy Theater area.
"This five thousand is really gonna be dedicated to the community," he said. "One of the things that we wanna do to determine the types of food trucks, the ones that will be staples there, will stay there, are locals. I think that's where we prioritize local, local vendors."
Stroud says the idea is to get people involved through social media.
"Through our engagement, our public engagement digitally, having people vote to say, 'no I like this one, which one should stay? which one are staples?' having that type of active engagement makes people feel like they're in control of their community," Stroud said.
On Thursday, the Roxy Theater was added to the Historic Macon Foundation's Fading Five list, making it yet another building that Macon Bibb County will work to bring back to life.
"The Roxy was the starting point to knowing more about Black culture and diving more into the history that's untold here in Macon," Stroud said.
He also says the goal is to bring a middle market and economy to the Greenwood Bottom neighborhood, through food.
"Having an area and space that's designated for that provides new opportunity and a new experience that expands the downtown, that doesn't compete with the brick and mortar restaurants," he said.
So far, there's no timetable for when the food trucks could be brought in.
Stroud says between fundraising and other community grants, there's more than $10,000 set aside towards this project.