How the Trucking Industry Helped Feed a Million People in Florida After Hurricane Ian

On September 28, the day after Hurricane Ian made a deadly landfall in Florida, Joe Mayeli, a 55-year-old truck driver, drove a flatbed truck carrying five large meat smokers and a dry van full of kitchen supplies toward the town center of Port Charlotte in Charlotte County.

Mayeli said emergency crews rescuing stranded residents by boat had blocked a highway exit. He passed them as he navigated dangerous roads after the Category 4 hurricane, traveling from a staging area on the Georgia line, and eventually delivered the much-needed supplies.

"The first four or five days were completely about going around obstacles," said Mayeli, who is from Hagerstown, Maryland. "It's getting better now, but there's still a lot to clean up... Power poles are down, trees are across the roads."

Mayeli is a volunteer team member of Operation BBQ Relief, a disaster relief nonprofit, and he helped the organization set up and supply a free feeding site aimed at providing at least one million hot lunches and dinners to residents in need across Florida after the storm.

Since its founding in 2011, the nonprofit has relied on truck drivers like Mayeli to support its post-disaster food distribution efforts. And after Hurricane Ian, the extra boost from the trucking industry is driving the organization toward its largest response to date.

The American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), a transportation industry nonprofit formed after Hurricane Katrina, provided transportation services, refrigerated trailers for food storage, and other free assistance. Operation BBQ Relief officials said this help was crucial in expanding the feeding site to 60,000 to 80,000 meals per day.

"They have been a godsend to us," said Chris Huckins, director of logistics and transportation for Operation BBQ Relief.

"A lot of food is needed"

On September 30, flooding forced the closure of Interstate 75, and Mayeli was briefly stranded in Florida while the feeding site was being set up. Once the highway reopened, he immediately set out again, hauling pallets of canned vegetables, food containers, and other supplies from Texas, South Carolina, and Georgia.

"A lot of food is needed," Mayeli said.

According to Huckins, just last week, the nonprofit sourced green beans from Wisconsin, mixed vegetables from Virginia, bread from Nebraska and Kentucky, and beef brisket from Arizona.

Huckins lives in Dallas and works as a freight broker during the day. But as director of logistics and transportation for Operation BBQ Relief, he shifts his focus from hauling building materials to hauling food and agricultural products.

"We have products from all over the country, some purchased from suppliers and some donated by suppliers," he said. "During these disasters, our transportation costs can sometimes exceed $150,000."

That's where the American Logistics Aid Network and its executive director, Kathy Fulton, step in. Huckins and Fulton work together to coordinate what needs to be shipped, and Fulton works with the network's partners to move goods for Operation BBQ Relief at no cost.

Building bridges and airlifting

Fulton said requests from Operation BBQ Relief and other nonprofits to the American Logistics Aid Network vary, but the biggest are transportation needs, ranging from less-than-truckload to full truckload shipments.

"We're right in between organizations, helping push information and resources to where they need to be and trying to build bridges so that this network can function without us," Fulton said.

In addition to its partnership with the trucking industry, Operation BBQ Relief worked with Operation AirDrop, a Texas-based nonprofit, to fly food into areas isolated by flooding, such as Fort Myers and Sanibel Island.

"We're delivering meals to many different counties," said Joey Ruseck, operations manager for Operation BBQ Relief. "We worked with them and airlifted about 20,000 meals over three days."

"Coming at the right time"

Cars lined up at Operation BBQ Relief's free feeding site because more than half of Charlotte County residents were without power, said county spokesman Brian Gleason.

"These people haven't had a hot meal in a long time unless they cooked it themselves on a grill, if they still have one," Gleason said. "The food in their refrigerators went bad a long time ago... This is a really great program and it's coming at the right time because people are really struggling."

On Friday morning, Mayeli operated a forklift at the rear of his trailer, slowly moving the latest shipment—a load of Del Monte canned green beans—toward the forklift waiting for volunteer Forrest Parks.

That evening, he hit the road again for Alabama to meet another driver and pick up a load of corn.