Marco’s Express closing to make way for Soulcial Kitchen’s latest expansion
Marco’s Express in Swansea will cease operations at the Soulcial Kitchen campus later this month, allowing the food truck campus’s ongoing and growing efforts to provide healthy meals for the food insecure.
The restaurant’s final service will be March 14, according to an announcement from owners Andrew and Ashley Huch.
Their lease at 127 North Belt East will not be renewed, and the couple is ready to “step back and spend more time with our children and families,” they stated.
Soulcial Kitchen’s founder and president, John Michel, said in a phone interview that the Huchs’ lease was coming to a natural end, providing an opportunity for the continued expansion of the growing enterprise.
However, the Marco’s brand will continue, he said, relaunching as a food truck at a later date.
He said it made sense not to renew the Huchs’ lease — to which they agreed — and to instead use the campus to better accommodate current apprenticeships and turn it into an indoor-outdoor venue with a mission, he said.
Since Soulcial Kitchen began, the question was always, “Can we expand services?” According to Michel: Yes.
“We’ve spent five years proving that a food truck can change a life,” Michel stated separately in a release.
“At a time when federal safety nets are being pulled back, we’re building a place where people don’t just come for food—they find connection, compassion, and a path forward.”
After “operating a full-service restaurant and deploying mobile food trucks across the region, Soulcial Kitchen’s leadership recognized that lasting impact requires more than mobility—it requires a permanent home where training, production, and dignified food access can operate at scale, every day,” stated the release.
Over the next six or seven weeks, the restaurant will become Soulcial Kitchen Commons, the food access and hospitality hub for the campus, said Michel.
The facility will serve as a commissary for the food trucks at the campus, providing space for all the organization’s chefs to utilize their talents. The campus will continue to address food insecurity, develop hospitality entrepreneurship and strengthen community connections. It will also house a culinary and hospitality leadership training center and a production kitchen for food-as-medicine and prepared meals.
“It’s a huge capacity boost for the region,” Michel said.
He also said that the restaurant will receive a patio expansion and more park updates in the coming weeks.
Soulcial Kitchen Commons is expected to open in April.
Food truck season opens May 1 and will again include live music in a family-friendly setting.
About Soulcial Kitchen
Soulcial Kitchen, located at 127 North Belt East in Swansea, opened in October 2021 and included multiple food trucks. Later that month, Soulcial Kitchen Restaurant & Bar opened in the main building. In February 2023, Marco’s Express opened in its place after leaving its previous site at 1401 Lebanon Ave.
In March 2023, Soulcial Kitchen’s Currency of Caring Program partnered with Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois to address food insecurity among military service members and their families at Scott Air Force Base. In November 2024, the partnership was awarded with the Abilene Trophy, a national U.S. Air Force award recognizing community engagement.
Other programs offered by Soulcial Kitchen include the Food Truck Apprenticeship Program, Rescued Food Program, culinary training, social enterprise catering and food truck operations training, community cooking classes and meal prep workshops, and more.
Soulcial Kitchen received the National Community Champion award from American Express and the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (2025) and the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Advocacy Award (2026).
For more information, updates and volunteer opportunities, visit soulcialkitchen.com or facebook.com/soulcialkitchen.
