If you've noticed fewer food trucks floating around midtown today, don't blame the gas shortage: a number of trucks have been giving out free meals in areas hit hard by Sandy.
Popular food trucks like Phil's Steaks, Toum, Korilla BBQ and Rickshaw have rolled out to the Rockaways, Staten Island and Coney Island over the past few days, feeding locals who still lack water, electricity and other necessities. Yesterday, a bunch of trucks were sponsored through an NYC Food Truck Association indiegogo fundraiser, which raised $27,646. And today, the Mayor's Fund for NYC funded 21 trucks to deliver food, water and supplies to areas in need in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
Chase Bank has also jumped on the food truck game, sending Korilla BBQ to serve free meals. The truck served about 600 people on Coney Island yesterday afternoon, and Chase set up mobile ATMs nearby as well. "It's just a great feeling to give and help out any means possible," Willie Bae, the Korilla BBQ manager, told the Wall Street Journal. The truck was on Far Rockaway today, according to its Twitter account.
The hot meals are undoubtedly welcome, and seem a bit more substantial than some other recent disaster-related food donations. Hopefully, they'll keep people warm, watered and fed through some of this awful cold spell.
