In 2011, we had a meeting with marketing director and brilliant, dear friend Donna Tefft to discuss future events at The Pinehills. Donna was a big believer that getting people TO The Pinehills to see, touch and feel the place was the strongest way to truly understand what The Pinehills was. So special events like concerts, art festivals, holiday events and movie nights were a big part of the marketing program early on. And it worked. So many people would say, "I've heard about The Pinehills. I'm so glad you're doing this so I had an excuse to come and see it!"

Donna asked us to come up with something different. Not music, not art... something unique that hadn't been done before. Anne-Marie, the head of our agency said, "Well, I've heard about these things called food trucks. They're very big in California and they're heading east. Maybe we could find some and bring them to The Pinehills for a festival—a food truck festival." And the first-ever food truck festival in New England was born. The Fabulous Food Truck Festival at The Pinehills.

We found seven trucks and invited them to come on a Saturday in June for a day of eating and fun. Music provided by Donna's amazing daughter Carly Tefft. The trucks asked us "How many people should we plan on serving?" We had absolutely no idea as this was a first-time event but we estimated a crowd of 1,000. When 6,000 people showed up we were flabbergasted. The grilled cheese truck came to us after an hour and said "I'm running out of cheese and bread." There were FIVE hours to go!

Off went Anne-Marie on a golf cart to The Market at The Pinehills. She corralled some poor young woman who had just started working in the deli department and screamed "I need 20 pounds of American cheese STAT!" With tears in her eyes, the poor girl started slicing that cheese. Her usual order had been a 1/4 pound. She was definitely weepy. Armed with pounds of cheese and a dolly filled with bread, we got the grilled cheese truck back in business and all was well. The festival was a roaring success!

After that, we produced dozens of food truck festivals throughout the country and 15 years later they are still going strong. On the other hand I am going to guess that was the deli girl's last day at The Market and hopefully she moved onto another profession! But she will never forget that food truck festival... or Anne-Marie!
– Aigner / Prensky Marketing Group

Celebrating 25 Years

I need 20 pounds of American cheese, STAT!

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