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Food trucks wait out Hurricane Florence, support relief efforts

Food trucks are hoping to get back to work this week after Hurricane Florence battered parts of the Southeast late last week. Thousands of people have been displaced and are in need of food and water as assistance has been hampered by road closures caused by flooding and food truck operators are stepping up to help.

Image courtesy of iStock

September 17, 2018 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

Many food trucks in the Carolinas are hoping to get back to work Monday after hunkering down since Thursday as Hurricane Florence battered the region, leaving as much as 30 inches of water in some areas, causing at least 17 deaths and sending tens of thousands of residents to shelters. More than 1.7 million residents of the Carolinas and Virginia were told to evacuate to escape the storm.

"We're just waiting," Oscar Hines, who operates Dashi, a Charleston, South Carolina food truck that serves Asian and Latin fare, told Food Truck Operator in a phone interview. Hines closed his commissary Wednesday and plans to resume service Tuesday. He was aware of a few food trucks serving first responders, but he noted the emergency medical service wanted people to stay indoors as much as possible throughout the storm.

Kerry Raglund, who operates Kurbside Katering in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, drove his truck to Scnoia, Georgia, last Wednesday to stay with a friend until the storm passed. He was hoping to hit some Georgia festivals to attend. He initially placed a notice on his Facebook page offering to help first responders, but got no response. 

Deb Keller, who owns a Cousins Maine Lobster franchise in Raleigh, North Carolina, decided to close both her restaurant and her two food trucks as a safety measure.

"I don't want to put my team in any sort of jeopardy with roads," Keller said, adding that food truck event coordinators had cancelled all events last week. She expects to open one of the two trucks by Tuesday.

Keller said some local food trucks noted on a local food truck app that they were donating food to relief efforts. Others have contributed to disaster relief organizations, such as the Red Cross.

Food trucks assist relief efforts

One food truck operator, Jon Hansel — who runs Holly Springs Barbecue Company in Holly Springs, North Carolina — has been active in a food relief effort through Operation BBQ Relief, a nationwide volunteer organization based in Shawnee, Kansas, that provides hot meals to first responders and victims.

Hansel is working in tandem with a fleet of about 30 Salvation Army trucks ready to take direction from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross. Operation BBQ Relief was prepared to serve at least 25,000 plates per day for as many as 14 days, Hansel said.

Hansel, a veteran of the Hurricane Harvey relief effort last year in Texas, said most of the food — barbecued pork, turkey, chicken and side dishes — has been donated. His truck is especially well suited to a relief effort as its main purpose is to provide free meals to those at free mobile dental clinics throughout the state as part of the North Carolina Mission of Mercy.

Jack of All Trades by George, a food truck builder based in Garner, North Carolina, plans to support Operation BBQ Relief with vehicle repairs if needed. Company owner George Campeau said he had no problem agreeing to the request for help from his customer, Hansel, after helping out during Hurricane Harvey. 

The North Carolina Baptist Men tweeted it was deploying its Manna One, a 40-foot semi to serve 30,000 meals a day as part of the organization's food relief effort in partnership with FEMA, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

The Mobile County, Alabama Sheriff's Office also planned to serve first responders with its food truck, having first gone into action during Hurricane Harvey last year in Houston, where it fed more than 14,000 meals to first responders.

Food and water assistance needed

Thousands of people in the Carolinas are still in need of food and water, according to news reports. FEMA planned to airlift food and water to 120,000 in Wilmington, North Carolina, where people were stranded because of road closures, according to the Associated Press. People were waiting outside of stores and restaurants for hours on Sunday as police limited access to prevent looting.

The recovery effort is expected to take several weeks, if not months. Trucks carrying food, water and other basic supplies, were in various staging areas around the Carolinas and Virginia, according to news reports.

More than 20,000 people in six states — North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and Maryland — took shelter in 206 Red Cross and community shelters as of Thursday, according to ABC News. A total of 19 states have sent teams to North Carolina to assist with the recovery.
 

About Elliot Maras

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Elliot Maras is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times. He brings three decades covering unattended retail and commercial foodservice.