Metro Atlanta Freelancer Looking For His Share Of Economic Recovery
Terrance Pollard opened a food truck after he stopped working as a contractor for FedEx.
Johnny Kauffman
On a recent afternoon, Terrance Pollard showed me the inside of his Caribbean food truck.
“You might have some chicken grilling here, and then you might have some buns warming up over there, and then you might have some fries in the deep fryer,” he says.
Pollard learned to cook by watching his Trinidadian family do it.
“I grew up with a family who always was cooking,” he says. “Auntie, mommy, everybody always cooking. I never used to cook, but I would see them cook. So, I always knew what you need to do, but I never really physically did it until I came here and I was living on my own.”
Pollard says he moved to the U.S. in the ’80s, soon after he graduated from high school.
He used to be a contractor for FedEx. When he left that gig, Pollard started driving for Uber and Lyft and opened the food truck. Sometimes he even DJs, too.
“You never know what’s going to take you to that next level,” he says.
A decade after the Great Recession, Pollard says he hasn’t seen his share of the recovery.
He’s gotten a small boost, he says, like an increase in customers at the food truck and more passengers when he’s driving for Uber and Lyft.
But Pollard doesn’t think he’s gotten as much as he deserves, especially compared to large corporations.
About 20 percent of American workers are contractors, according to an NPR/Marist poll. Only half of those contractors get benefits.
Pollard says he’s not financially comfortable right now, and he doesn’t have a cushion to land on if something goes bad.
“My dream is to leave something behind for at least my kids to have at least a better life than what I do,” Pollard says.
Pollard will keep pursuing that goal. Looking to draw more from the improving economy.
His next venture: distributing a fancy bottled water from Kosovo.
This story is part of the WABE series “Still Struggling.”
Top Stories
