How the Trucking Industry Helped Feed Millions in Florida After Hurricane Ian

On September 28, the day after Hurricane Ian made a deadly landfall in Florida, Joe Myerly drove a flatbed truck carrying five large meat smokers and a dry van loaded with kitchen supplies toward downtown Port Charlotte in Charlotte County.

The 55-year-old truck driver said emergency crews rescuing residents by boat had blocked a highway exit. Myerly, traveling from a staging area near the Georgia border over dangerous roads in the wake of the Category 4 hurricane, passed those rescuers and eventually delivered the needed supplies.

"For the first four or five days, it was like an obstacle course everywhere," said Myerly, who lives in Hagerstown, Maryland. "It's getting better now, but there's still a lot to clean up... Power poles are down, trees are across the road."

Myerly is part of a volunteer team for Operation BBQ Relief, a disaster relief nonprofit, helping the organization set up and supply a free feeding site aimed at providing at least 1 million hot lunches and dinners to Floridians in need after the storm.

Since its founding in 2011, the nonprofit has relied on truck drivers like Myerly 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 yet.

The American Logistics Aid Network, a transportation industry nonprofit formed after Hurricane Katrina, contributed shipping services, refrigerated trailers for food storage, and other free assistance. Operation BBQ Relief officials said this help was key to scaling the feeding site to 60,000 to 80,000 meals per day.

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

"A lot of food is needed"

Flooding forced the closure of Interstate 75 on September 30, temporarily stranding Myerly in Florida while he was helping set up the feeding site. Once the highway reopened, he hit the road again, hauling pallets of canned vegetables, food containers, and other supplies from Texas, South Carolina, and Georgia.

"It takes a lot of food," Myerly said.

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

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

"We have product coming from all over the country, some purchased from vendors and some donated by vendors," 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 to help. Huggins and Fulton coordinate what needs to be shipped, while Fulton communicates with the network's partners to move goods for Operation BBQ Relief at no cost.

Building bridges and air support

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

"We sit right in the middle of organizations, helping push information and resources where they need to go and trying to build bridges so that this network can ultimately function without us," Fulton said.

In addition to working with the trucking industry, Operation BBQ Relief partnered with Texas-based nonprofit Operation AirDrop to fly food to Fort Myers, Sanibel Island, and other areas cut off by flooding.

"We're delivering meals to many different counties," said Joey Rusek, operations director for Operation BBQ Relief. "We worked with them to airlift about 20,000 meals total over three days."

"Coming at the right time"

Charlotte County spokesperson Brian Gleason said lines of vehicles stretched at the Operation BBQ Relief free feeding site because more than half of the county's residents were without power.

"These people haven't had a hot meal in a long time, unless they could still cook on their own grill—if the grill was still there," Gleason said. "The food in their refrigerators went bad long ago... It's a really great program, and it's coming at the right time because people are really struggling."

Friday morning, at the back of the trailer, Myerly positioned a forklift pallet under his latest load—a truckload of Del Monte canned green beans—and slowly eased it toward the forklift of waiting volunteer Forrest Parks.

By that evening, he was back on the road, heading to Alabama to meet another driver and pick up a load of corn.