BURGAW — After World Central Kitchen’s army of celebrity chefs and local food trucks surpassed 200,000 meals served in Wilmington and surrounding areas on Monday, Poor Piggy’s BBQ truck headed to the flood-stricken town of Burgaw on Wednesday.
“We’re here to get everybody warmed up and back together and feeling human again,” T’Geaux Boys’ owner Michelle “Momma” Rock said, then resumed singing Snow White’s “Whistle while you work” and handing out styrofoam boxes of beef and broccoli casserole.
While there are still needs in Wilmington, she said, they are now going out to rural areas that don’t have as many resources — people without power, without food access.
Momma Rock teamed up with Poor Piggy’s BBQ owner Harvey Bruce because her own truck was back at World Central Kitchen’s headquarters at Diamond Foods Enterprises. With 50 to 100 volunteers in the main kitchen at one time, her truck’s kitchen was added to the line.
“They’ve overtaken our kitchen,” Rock said with a laugh.
Chefs Keith Rhodes of Catch, Christi Ferretti of Pine Valley Meat Market, and supervising chef Matt Hartman of Diamond Food Enterprises have been “all-stars” in the kitchen, Rock said, with Hartman known to regularly pull 18-hour shifts.
For Bruce, whose truck has been from Burgaw to Southport to Wilmington and back, Wednesday’s 800 meals dished out brought him to around 8,300 meals served since Hurricane Florence made landfall two weeks ago. His decision to pound the pavement was a simple matter of compensation: when the popular Port City RibFest at Carolina Beach was cancelled last weekend, he had 10,000 meals to spare.
“It takes a storm to bring us all together don’t it?” Bruce yelled out to a customer reaching for a box of food.
Although Bruce’s own house was damaged by the hurricane, it didn’t hamper his food distribution efforts.
“Out of the three pigs, where the wolf huffed and puffed, Pour Piggy’s house maybe got a little damage but it didn’t get blown down, so he’s out helping out everybody else,” Rock said.
Meanwhile, three National Guard supply trucks from the 626th Maintenance Support Company arrived at the Gateway Community Church’s back parking lot, dropping off a fresh supply of MREs and water bottles. Soldiers hoisted a group of kids up to the 8-foot-high truck bed to take pictures.
“It’s good to see the community come together as one,” Sergeant John Quander said. “It’s rewarding to give back to the community and help out as we can.”
For church deacon Gene Herring, the food trucks’ arrival was a warm bonus to the daily needs provided by the soldiers.
“All these people have been flooded out, trees on their houses, leaks from their roofs, all sorts of stuff, and they got to have some way to unwind. Now they can say, ‘Okay I got my warm meal for right now,’” Herring said.
Rock’ son Nick “Baby Rock” was outside the kitchen stacking boxes of food on a fold-out table. His mom said that he had started handing out meals by himself when he noticed people in the projects of Wilmington were getting overlooked.
“I just kinda drive around with food and see people on the side of the road and ask them if they want food or water … you get in a groove and it gets pretty easy, you know, to just keep goin’,” Rock said.
“I’ve gotten a lot of teary-eyed hugs from people, families with little kids downtown who probably aren’t used to seeing someone who looks like me coming to their door giving them stuff.”
Rock said that this spirit of goodwill among volunteers has been boosted by the larger-than-life persona of World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés, who has been on-ground in Wilmington every day overseeing the operation.
When one woman at the Hoggart High School shelter in Wilmington asked about a self-charging flashlight necklace he was wearing, he took it off and gave it to her, Rock said, and once wore waders looking for people who needed food in a flooded region.
As for World Central Kitchen, they’re packing up and moving to Lumberton Thursday morning in an effort to reach the rural areas affected by widespread flooding.
As the final meals in Burgaw were served on Wednesday, Bruce’s right-hand assistant Cyrstal Borror was heard saying, “You got food honey? You just take as many as you need.”
Mark Darrough can be reached at Mark@Localvoicemedia.com
