Food trucks to the rescue: Tallahassee chefs feeding hope to residents without power

Just three days ago, the city was swept by three tornadoes and 100-mph straight-line winds that caused widespread destruction, leaving almost 80,000 residents without power or hot meals to help ease their stress.

Local businesses, community leaders and generous Tallahassee residents teamed up to help feed those without power and those who have worked around the clock to restore it.

Some have offered their storefront's parking lots, like Angela Dunlap who was excited for the grand opening of her establishment, Load of Crafts, on Saturday May 11. Instead, she has allowed food trucks like Brown's Halo to park in front of her store on 438 FAMU Way.

Others have brought the food trucks directly into areas that needed it most.

Rudy Ferguson Sr., pastor of New Birth Tabernacle of Praise on Harlem Street and a candidate for City Commission Seat 1, along with a handful of others, teamed up with Peter's Sons BBQ to feed southside Tallahassee.

"We did our little part that we could to alleviate as much of the stress we could," Ferguson said Monday in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat. "In particular, by feeding people, giving them some hope and comfort."

Friday evening, Ferguson joined a call where people were looking for ways to help, and food was the key to a quick source of comfort.

"Instead of saying we can't do anything, we don't have anything, we just we put our heads together and made it happen," Ferguson said.

Saturday morning, the team set out to go to Sam's Club where they bought just enough food to feed up to 400 people that afternoon until the sunset.

Hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken and water were served in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot on South Monroe Street.

Tony Osborne, owner of Peter's Sons BBQ, helped prepare the food while members of New Birth Tabernacle of Praise's congregation helped to serve enough for people to get two or three plates if they so desired.

"It was a very heartwarming experience to see the kids who, you know, were hungry and the people that were still trying to wait patiently for the electricity to be restored," Ferguson said.

Other local food truck owners helped feed line workers working around the clock, including Tally Arepas.

The owner, Erika Rojas, saw a Facebook post Saturday afternoon from Amy Davis of BELFOR Property Restoration, a disaster recovery and property restoration company, who was looking to feed her 35-member crew working to restore damages at Florida A&M University.

The team has been working to get buildings around campus ready for students after they took damage during the storm.

Davis says some of the destruction was more extensive than others, "we're going to be out here for a while, at least through the end of the week," she said describing how some roofs were torn off of buildings.

The main focus right now is on Benjamin Banneker Buildings A and B located off Railroad Avenue, which she said took the "brunt of it." Other buildings include Dyson Pharmacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and the Grand Ballroom are other focus points.

To help thank some of the workers for their services, Tally Arepas came to the rescue with warm plates of authentic Venezuelan food including chicken rice, sweet plantains, shredded chicken and more.

"They loved it, the food was amazing too, like they gobbled it up so fast," Davis said.

Rojas, who was celebrating Mother's Day in her third trimester of pregnancy, said although, "I don't work Sundays and especially a Mother's Day, that's actually the reason why I did it because I know it was a special moment."

Rojas said she was happy to be able to answer the request because "not too many places have hot food."

▶Did your food truck help save the day? Email Kyla Sanford at ksanford@tallahassee.com and tell her how you helped and we'll try to add you to the story.

Kyla A Sanford covers dining and entertainment for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at ksanford@tallahassee.com. New restaurant opening up, special deals, or events coming up? Let me know!

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee food trucks save day after tornadoes take down power