Food and Fundraising on Wheels: Thanking DFW Food Trucks

written by Lilly Watson

Food trucks have been popping up across the U.S. for the past few years, and Dallas and Fort Worth have been lucky enough to be a major part of that movement. I love going over to the Dallas Arts District for food truck lunch on Friday for some street tacos, a sweet snack and an extra side of Vitman D as I soak up the sun at my picnic table.

My first day at the Red Cross I toured our facilities and was introduced to our Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs for short). These trucks go out to major home fires or communities affected by disaster distributing beverages, snacks and even hot meals to victims and relief workers. I remember the eyebrows raising on my tour guide as I delightfully exclaimed, "Wow! Who knew the Red Cross had our very own line of food trucks?!"

Our ERVs have been hitting the streets of Arlington, Forney and Lancaster this week. We're providing comfort and emotional support to victims who visit the trucks, as well as vital water and food. Over the past two days the Red Cross has delivered more than 1,300 meals and 3,300 drinks and snacks out of our trucks. Talk about slinging some hash!

A tornado victim in Arlington receives food and a needed laugh from the Red Cross Emergency Relief Vehicle on Thursday.

Since we fancy ourselves a charity extension of the food truck community, we are especially moved and grateful for the following food trucks who have pledged their support to us this weekend. Look for them out on the street and know as you enjoy your food truck food, a tornado victim in our area is getting a good meal off a truck tonight as well!

• Buying a Nammi Food Truck t-shirt makes a $10 donation to the Red Cross. They are also donating their tips to the Red Cross!
• Gandolfo's Ny Deli is donating a percentage of proceeds to the Red Cross through Tuesday.
• The Butcher's Son is also donating a percentage of proceeds through Tuesday.
• Enticed Shaved Ice is donating 100% of proceeds through Saturday.
• Rock Star Bakeshop is donating their tips to the Red Cross this weekend - look for the tip jar marked with the Red Cross!

To find out where any of these great trucks will be this weekend, click each link for their Twitter pages.

If you're wondering if Red Cross workers are making it over to support the trucks supporting us, we have the photo evidence and happy stomachs to prove it!

Dallas-area Red Cross communications and fund development workers visit Rock Star bakeshop on Thursday.

What is your favorite food truck in Dallas? Are you headed out this weekend to visit the trucks supporting our disaster relief efforts?

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Hurricane Irene Expected to Unleash Her Fury along the Eastern Seaboard

With Hurricane Irene’s eye glaring at some of America’s most populated urban areas along the eastern seaboard, the American Red Cross is mobilizing people and resources in force. Today, two Red Cross teams and two Emergency Response Vehicles left from North Texas to support local chapters in various states who have been working around the clock sheltering evacuees and prepping for landfall.



Any hurricane is serious business, but Irene has the potential to wreak havoc. With some 65 million people in her path, the American Red Cross is asking people who are not in her path, or who haven’t been affected by other recent storms, to support the relief effort by making a financial contribution to the American Red Cross. Already, the organization has expended tremendous resources just to get into position, but the hardest work still lies ahead.



Financial contributions help the Red Cross purchase needed items in bulk, such as pallets of bottled water, thousands of meals and snacks, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shovels, rakes, and other relief supplies. Those funds also help to put gas in response vehicles and make it possible for a volunteer to make it from Texas to New York to help out after the storm.



To make a donation to the American Red Cross, click on www.redcrossdallas.org, text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 or call 1-800-RED-CROSS. No gift is too small or too large.

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Southern States Grapple with Back-to-Back Disasters

Erica Williams, 12, receives a big hug from Janice Sawyer, Site Director for the Capitol River Chapter of Mississippi, in front of a flooded playground by Williams' home. Vicksburg, MS. Photo: Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross

This year, spring tornadoes and floods have brought heartache to many parts of the South, but through it all, the American Red Cross is there to help people recover from April’s deadly tornadoes and now major flooding along the Mississippi River.

As the nation’s attention has turned toward the rising river, volunteers from the Red Cross and its community partners began going door to door this week to give residents flood preparedness information and to help them cope with this stressful situation. The Red Cross also opened shelters for residents evacuating flood-threatened areas, and remains ready to provide shelter for potentially thousands of people.

Even as many are now anxiously watching the Mississippi, other Red Cross relief efforts also continue across the South in response to the hundreds of tornadoes that devastated the region last month. Just over 1,000 people stayed in a shelter on Thursday night, including more than 150 in hard-hit Alabama. In that state, more than 12,000 homes were either destroyed or heavily damaged; in North Carolina, almost 2,000 homes.

The deadly tornadoes didn’t spare Mountain City, Tenn., either. Many families are now clearing their land of debris or beginning to repair their homes—and the Red Cross is there to support them.

Teams of volunteers in Red Cross emergency response vehicles (ERVs) are delivering meals and distributing cleanup kits and coolers full of useful supplies such as flashlights, work gloves and safety goggles to the people who live in this remote town nestled in Cherokee National Forest.

“I think it’s great; it really helps us out,” said Taylor Robbins, 17, who along with her mother, collected supplies from the Red Cross. “It feels good that people care about us.”

Vince Nicely, a Red Cross volunteer for more than 10 years, is on ERV duty in Mountain City, handing out meals and comfort kits.

“We’ve been doing something different every day,” he says. “I’m learning new things and it feels so good to help.”

ERV driver Tim Hopkins says he’s in it for the long haul. “I just want to stick it out and make sure we’ve got everybody taken care of,” he said. “It’s fulfilling when people are in that shape and you’re able to help.”

Red Cross volunteers like Hopkins will be working across the South for weeks to come as the tornado recovery continues, and as relief operations follow the flooding Mississippi. You can read more about how the Red Cross is responding to this spring’s severe weather on Redcross.org.

How You Can Help

The Red Cross estimates that it will spend as much as $31 million responding to the wildfires, tornadoes and floods that have occurred over the past several weeks, while initiating another costly large-scale relief operation to help people along the Mississippi River. The Red Cross has received $23.2 million in pledges and contributions for disaster relief since March 31 to support the current response in 23 states around the country

The Red Cross depends on financial donations to help in times of disaster. Those who want to help can make a donation to support American Red Cross Disaster Relief. This gift enables the Red Cross to prepare for and provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance in response to disasters. Visit www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS; you can also text the word “REDCROSS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Contributions may also be sent to local American Red Cross chapters or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013.

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