Charleston, WV Pilot Plan¶
Status:
[HYPOTHESIS]— actively planning. No vehicle purchased, no permit filed, no funder committed. First documented 2026-05-22. Lead: Kevin Crump.
This is the business-plan and grant-strategy layer that sits on top of the real-world Trike concept. The parent concept keeps three candidate vehicle paths open; this plan explores the operational and funding consequences if the GoSun Gopher path is selected. The vehicle decision is not yet made.
Validation discipline¶
Per the Epistemic Honesty directive, every claim describing future operation, revenue, demand, impact, or carbon savings is [HYPOTHESIS] unless marked otherwise. The throughput, revenue, and scale numbers below are pre-pilot estimates from secondary research, not pilot data — good enough to scope grants and lock equipment deposits, not good enough to claim as validated outcomes to funders. The final evaluation (§ Data plan) will produce this project's first [PILOT VALIDATED] numbers. Time- or contact-sensitive items are tagged [VERIFY] and must be re-confirmed before entering any grant application.
Executive summary¶
A 3-Trike, 6-month, solar-powered mobile food and coffee service across three Charleston neighborhoods, operated by volunteer "Toaster Chef Pilots" out of partner community kitchens. The pilot tests whether a low-overhead, cashless-but-donation-friendly model can simultaneously (a) close measurable food-access gaps in documented food deserts, (b) generate enough earned revenue to defend the unit economics at scale, and (c) prove a replicable Appalachian model braiding food justice, just-transition workforce development, and distributed solar.
- Vehicles: 3× GoSun Gopher Solar Cargo E-Trikes at $9,995/unit — 650W solar, 2.2 kWh LiFePO4 battery, 2,400W continuous AC.
- Volunteer model: Pilots paid stipends (not wages) to preserve volunteer classification —
[VERIFY: WV volunteer-stipend threshold]. - Cashless & touchless: Square Tap-to-Pay; suggested-donation pricing with a $0 floor.
- Narrow menu: paper-wrapped burritos/wraps + drip coffee (no decaf) — a clean food-safety, economics, and throughput story.
- Three zones: West Side (equity-led), Downtown/East End (mixed), Capitol Market/Kanawha City (revenue-led).
The controlling scheduling fact: GoSun Gopher delivery is Q4 2026, so operations run May–October 2027, aligned to Charleston's solar-viable season. The intervening 12 months are the grant-and-permit runway.
- Funding target: $135,000–$200,000 across the grant stack (Honnold Foundation as anchor, TGKVF as local anchor, ARC POWER FY27 as scale-up bridge). Round grant ask: ~$160,000.
- Entity: fiscal sponsorship under Coalfield Development Corp. (WV-rooted; DBAs Refresh Appalachia) — faster than incorporating a 501(c)(3) from scratch and signals federal-grant capacity.
Scope¶
In scope: 3 e-trikes, 3 fixed daily routes, 6 months; burritos/wraps + drip coffee; cashless touchless POS; 1 paid part-time Pilot Coordinator (≤20 hr/wk) with volunteer field roles; commissary cooking out of 1–2 partner kitchens; rigorous data collection.
Out of scope (v1): owned/leased commissary, refrigerated cold-chain, catering/events, decaf, custom/allergen menus, brick-and-mortar, more than 3 bikes, year-round operation (Charleston winter solar is non-viable).
The narrow scope is intentional — to produce a defensible dataset, not a sprawling proof of concept.
Theory of change¶
- Food access is geographic — where the grocery store closed (e.g., the June 2026 Kroger closures at Riverwalk Plaza and Dunbar), the burrito shows up.
- Dignity is transactional — cashless pay-what-you-can looks identical whether you pay $5 or $0; removing the "free-meal line" cue is an equity intervention.
- Volunteers are abundant; coordination is scarce — a small paid coordinator + clear playbook unlocks 10–20× volunteer hours per dollar.
- Solar is a story and a savings — the fuel cost of a route is $0, and the visible panels make the model legible to funders in a way a generator truck never could.
Three-zone coverage¶
| Zone | Posture | Anchors | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — West Side | Equity-led | Washington St. West, Garnet Career Center, West Side Library, Magic Island | $3 burrito / $1.50 coffee suggested, $0 floor |
| 2 — Downtown / East End | Mixed | Capitol complex, courthouse, CAMC edge; adjacent to Manna Meal (400 served/day, 1105 Quarrier) | $5 / $2.50 suggested |
| 3 — Capitol Market / Kanawha City | Revenue-led | Capitol Market, Patrick St. bridge, KC office corridor | $6 / $3 suggested |
The three zones form a roughly triangular footprint within ~3 miles of downtown — well inside the Gopher's 35-mile battery range — so two commissaries can feed all three routes and one coordinator can quality-check all three bikes in a single afternoon loop. Timing the Zone 2 bike to arrive ~1:15 PM (as Manna Meal closes) preserves population continuity.
Menu and throughput¶
Frozen for v1: 2 rotating-protein burritos + 1 vegan + 1 cold backup wrap; single-roast drip coffee, 12 oz only, no decaf.
Throughput model per Trike per 4-hour shift — [HYPOTHESIS], from comparable mobile-vendor secondary research, not pilot data: ~96 cups + ~60 burritos at design capacity. Across 3 Trikes × 5 days × 26 weeks: ~23,400 burritos + ~37,400 coffees at design capacity; conservative target (50%) ~11,700 burritos + ~18,700 coffees. Capture rate is the single largest source of uncertainty — replacing single estimates with zone-specific measured rates is the pilot's primary purpose.
Feasibility (summary)¶
- Equipment: Gopher specs comfortably envelope the operational profile. The key risk is delivery slippage past Q4 2026 (crowdfunded GoSun products have a slippage history). Mitigation: early deposits + soft-launch contingency with 1 bike / 1 zone.
- Energy: 650W panels yield ~3+ kWh/day at the May–Oct ~5 kWh/m²/day irradiance — roughly 2× daily consumption of brewer + induction + POS. Outside that window solar is insufficient, which is why the pilot is 6 months, not 12.
- Regulatory: KCHD permits mobile food units (FDA 2013 Model Food Code); expect $150–$500/yr per unit (
[VERIFY: (304) 344-5243]). Charleston street-vending permit fee/process[VERIFY]. Insurance via FLIP ~$300–$1,300/yr/unit. A permitted commissary is required — Manna Meal's kitchen qualifies; a partnership letter is needed before permit submission. - Demand is not the constraint — capturing even 10% of post-Manna-Meal afternoon demand (40 servings/day) at Zone 2 alone meets the conservative target.
- Financial: the pilot is grant-dependent (~75%); revenue covers ~25% of operating costs — enough to prove a revenue trajectory, explicitly insufficient to argue revenue-only sustainability (that is reserved for the scale model).
Data and evaluation plan¶
Seven hypotheses (H1–H7) are pre-registered before launch so post-hoc rationalization cannot pollute the conclusion — covering equity vs. revenue split, gross margin, cost per meal (≤$5.00 target for scale viability), volunteer retention (≥60% at month 6), bike uptime (≥85%), $0-pay rate (≥30% in Zone 1, validating dignity-without-stigma), and solar autonomy (≥80% of operational days). Every transaction and shift is logged (Square POS, GPS traces, solar/battery telemetry, servings, volunteer hours, downtime, food cost, weather, a 5-question customer intercept survey, monthly volunteer + partner check-ins).
A month-3 interim review produces documented go / adjust / stop decisions; the month-7 final eval computes cost-per-meal four ways and is published openly under CC BY-SA. A WVU or Marshall researcher is recruited as a no-cost academic co-author to add credibility. No PII is collected by default.
Budget (summary)¶
| Block | Amount |
|---|---|
| Capital (3 trikes, equipment kits, branding, permits, insurance Y1, ServSafe) | ~$47,735 |
| Operational (6 mo: coordinator, volunteer stipends, commissary, food COGS, software, mileage, maintenance, marketing, eval) | ~$85,775 |
Reserves (15% contingency + ~8% fiscal-sponsor fee [VERIFY]) |
~$32,327 |
| Total | ~$165,837 |
Revenue offset — [HYPOTHESIS]: conservative ~$32k / target ~$48k / optimistic ~$72k. Net grant ask: $135,000–$165,000. These figures derive from the §throughput hypothesis × per-zone donation midpoints and should be presented to funders as planning targets, not forecasts.
Grant stack¶
| Funder | Range | Window | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honnold Foundation Core Fund | $25k–$150k | Jan 20 – Feb 12, 2027 | 🔴 Anchor (solar + community equity, direct on-thesis) |
| TGKVF — Basic Needs | $15k–$25k | By invitation (start outreach Jul 2026) | 🔴 Local anchor |
| ARC POWER FY27 | $50k–$1.5M | LOI ~May 2027 | 🟡 Scale-up bridge (file during ops with real data; 20% match) |
| Try This WV mini grant | up to $3k | ~early June | 🟢 Quick win |
Secondary/opportunistic: KEYS 4 HealthyKids, Walmart Local, Just Transition Fund, Pollination Project, Awesome Foundation, Patagonia. De-prioritized: EPA Environmental Justice (2025 IRA rescissions), USDA FMPP (prepared-food vending rarely qualifies), DOE SETO (capacity bar too high), USDA Community Food Projects (not in NIFA's FY26 list).
Impact at scale — [HYPOTHESIS]¶
All scale numbers are pre-pilot projections; they become [PILOT VALIDATED] only after the eval report replaces the underlying assumptions with measured data. Carbon-avoidance figures specifically follow the Sustainability directive — theoretical savings are not measured savings.
- Pilot (6 mo): ~30,400 servings, ~3,500 unique customers, ~$32k–$72k revenue, ~3,900 zero-emission food-service miles, ~5.3 metric tons CO₂ avoided vs. a comparable food truck — all
[HYPOTHESIS]. - Year 2 (single city): 8–12 Trikes, 12-month ops with a cold-weather model; earned-revenue share rises 25% → 40–50%.
- Year 3 (multi-city Appalachian): replicate in Huntington, Morgantown, Pittsburgh, Knoxville via a shared playbook; ~$80k–$120k incremental per city; a 50-bike network ≈ 600,000 servings/yr.
The unit-economics math (cost per meal, % earned revenue, % off-grid days) is the single most important pilot output — it determines whether year 5 is 50 bikes or 500.
Items requiring verification before grant submission¶
Consolidated [VERIFY] list: KCHD permit fee + non-motorized eligibility; Charleston street-vending permit; Coalfield Development sponsorship terms/fee; Try This WV window status; GoSun commercial pricing + Q4 2026 delivery confirmation; TGKVF program-officer timing; Manna Meal commissary viability; WV volunteer-stipend threshold; GoSun companion-app data export (critical for the solar-autonomy hypothesis); ARC POWER FY27 LOI window.
Source: condensed from the project's charleston-pilot-plan.md (Plan v0.1).