As the country's unemployment rate decreases, one group struggles to find jobs—youth. The unemployment rate for teens 16 to 19 years old is one of the few that have increased since last year. More than one in five teens looking for work struggle to find a job. The rates are even higher for young African American men in Pennsylvania. 

That is precisely why Kareem Wallace and Troy Harris are planning to start a food truck.

Grassroots is the business partners' idea for a vegetarian truck that employs at-risk youth. While food trucks continue to gentrify, with high-end facelifts and expensive dishes, Grassroots is taking a different path, using the food truck model as an affordable and mobile solution to building a community-oriented business within the food industry. In the spirit of healthy communities, the two plan to fill a vegetarian food truck niche for university students and customers in whatever area where they decide to park. An online fundraising campaign through Crowdtilt has just reached its first goal, but the campaign has nearly $29,000 to go to to fully fund six months of operating costs. 

Troy Harris and Kareem Wallace have been in the food industry for years, working together for the past decade at University of Pennsylvania dining commons. They both have experienced the challenges of working with few benefits, low pay and little room for upward mobility. Harris and Wallace participated in a campaign last year to improve working conditions, but their victories just drove them closer to their dream of providing better, more dignified working conditions in their community. 

Harris said that young men in his neighborhood have asked him numerous times for a job. 

"I have a lot of young people in my community who ask me constantly, 'can you get me a job, can you get me a job,'" Harris said. "That's not just in West Philly. That's in South Philly, too."

For those with criminal records, finding a job is even more challenging. Despite a 3-year-old city law to ban criminal background questions on applications, several large employers in the area have ignored the law and continue to inquire into applicants' criminal histories, according to a recent investigation by Newsworks. Harris said that that's only part of the problem. Consistent rejections discourage job seekers from participating in the formal market, he said, and many turn to illegal work to provide for their families.

"For the ones who do have the background history and the heart to work and want to change their lives, I want to be the guy that's there to say, 'come on board,'" Harris said. "We're going to sit down and talk with you, guide you through every step. Nothing happens overnight."

Grassroots is more than an idea for a food truck, Harris explained. It's even more than a way to provide employment opportunities. At it's root, the idea is for the business to send a message to the next generation that there are more options than low-wage or illegal work. The two plan to funnel any profits from the truck into a mentoring program called "A Few Good Men" that involves school visits to spread their success stories as well as support.

The team has one day left to raise more money, but Harris said that they wouldn't give up for any reason, even if they don't make their $70,000 goal. Harris said that he is grateful to his business partner, Kareem, as well as his wife and his network of more than 700 contributors who funded the Grassroots vision.   

"We're not going to stop trying," Harris said. "We're just going to try harder."