Gerritsen Beach, the small Zone B community in South Brooklyn that was ruined by Hurricane Sandy, hasn't had power since last Monday. With many homes uninhabitable after so much flooding, people have been spending their time cleaning and salvaging what they can. And it's been a long time without a fresh-cooked meal for them, too—which is why Lonestar Taco's visit was especially welcome yesterday. One volunteer said that people came up to their table saying, "We heard you have hot rice."
Wayne Surber and Tracie Lee operate a stall at New Amsterdam Market, and they fed lower Manhattan residents and businesses last Thursday. Then Aaron Cohen, of @EatBoston, asked if they would go out again, if Boston-based (or anywhere-based, really) contributors donated money.
With over $525 successfully raised, Wayne and Tracie did about a week of preparation—from procuring ingredients (like a pig from a farm) to cooking them (that chipotle is made from scratch)— in two days. Then they rallied five other volunteers to head to Gerritsen Beach, at the suggestion of Allison Robicelli who has been networking to connect volunteers with needy areas, and set up a grill and everything else (induction burners, stable surfaces, sterno candles, serving implements, etc.) and got to work, serving tacos, rice and beans. According to volunteer Adriana Jacobs, one child watched Wayne cooking with great interest and said, "This is beautiful."
Tracie tells us, "We served food in a modified version of how we do it at New Amsterdam Market—in a way we had an advantage to doing an ad-hoc mobile set up since we do this every Sunday! We had most of the equipment already and we got chafing dishes donated from Craig and Ben from Peaches (we live just down the street from Peaches). We wanted to give people options since we knew that a lot of people have dietary restrictions or allergies, but we needed to balance that with serving many people quickly. Plus having help from volunteers allowed us to control the flow and make sure everyone got fed."
Lonestar Taco says they are trying to sort out their previous commitments in hopes of doing more for the devastated Hurricane Sandy-struck communities soon. In the meantime, Gerritsen Beach really needs MANPOWER and coffee.
