Meals For Wheels

Apr 22, 2020 - 5 years ago

L-R: Peter Milobar (Kamloops-North Thompson MLA), Greg Munden, and Todd Stone (MLA Kamloops-South Thompson and former Minister of Transportation). Photo courtesy Meals for Truck Drivers BC Facebook page.

FRONT PAGE STORY: The Meals for Truck Drivers BC Program, which began as a grass-roots movement to help local truckers find food during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, is quickly growing across Canada, helping one of society’s most essential workers — the professional driver.

In March of 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic had reached a point where businesses were forced to close and people were asked to stay home. Everyone, that is, except essential workers like the professional truck driver.

With many businesses shuttered, drivers were having a difficult time finding meals on the road. Restaurants were ordered to shut their doors to patrons except for drive-thrus and takeout/delivery options. Many drivers were turned away from drive-thrus because they had to walk up; other restaurants offering takeout had no adequate parking.

Geoff Goodman from Waste Connections Canada holding one of the road signs donated by Signcraft Kelowna, at Chevron Bulk Plant Kelowna. Thanks to Tony Laurie of Kelowna and Surfside California Tacos food truck. Photo courtesy Meals for Truck Drivers BC Facebook page.

An Idea Forms

That’s when Brad Wood, owner of a moving, storage, and records management business in Kamloops, BC had heard first-hand from his drivers that they were having these challenges. It was his idea to find a way to mobilize a food truck to help in Kamloops — he just wasn’t sure how to get that going.

“Brad reached out to me in hopes that my connections in the industry through our own trucking business and my roles with the BC Trucking Association (past Chairman, current Board of Directors) and the Canadian Trucking Alliance (Secretary/Treasurer on the Executive Committee) might lead to moving this forward,” said Greg Munden of Munden Ventures, creator of the Meals for Truck Drivers BC Facebook page, which launched April 2nd.

“I knew that our Associations had received reports of these same issues across the country and into the United States. Meals for Truck Drivers BC was launched to recognize that something needed to be done to help these ‘highway heroes’, by finding a way to provide convenient, safe, and efficient services to the drivers,” Munden continued.

Munden reached out to Chevron/Parkland in hopes that they would make one of their Kamloops card lock sites available. In the beginning, this was only envisioned to be one food truck in Kamloops. Parkland’s response was great, “They got back to me the same day,” said Munden. “After running the idea up through their senior leadership in BC with the news that, not only would they make Kamloops available to us, but also all of their card lock facilities throughout the province of BC if we wanted to expand the initiative,” he continued. “It has pretty much taken on a life of its own.”

Sponsors To The Rescue

The incredible part of this story is how companies have stepped up to sponsor the food trucks — even providing free meals to drivers if they needed it. “We had not contemplated providing meals for free for drivers,” explained Munden, “only to make it available and provide them some more variety than what they currently had available,” he said.

“The Facebook page received a lot of early attention and sponsors began approaching us,” Munden said. “Everyone seemed to not only love the idea,” he said. “Sid Keay, owner of Ocean Trailer, reached out to me almost right away offering to sponsor more than $5,000 worth of meals for drivers at two locations – Kamloops and Chilliwack,” Munden said. “We were blown away.”

“I said, ‘you know, how about I give you $5,000 to start it out? Let’s buy the boys some meals!’” said Sid Keay, president of Ocean Trailer, a trailer dealer with eight locations and over 250 employees. “It was all supposed to be in Chilliwack, then they got a food truck lined up for Kamloops, so we split it — half to Kamloops and half to Chilliwack,” Keay explained. “In Kamloops, a lot of the guys didn’t want their meal for free. They paid for it!” said Keay. “We thought that was awesome, and we told them we were giving it to the local food bank in Kamloops,” Keay continued.

“People are realizing the value of these essential service-type workers,” said Keay. “It has also created some work for the food truck people. They do events and public gathering places, and that stuff’s all shut down. As it should be! This type of thing is something they have never done before and you can properly social distance this. It can be done properly. That’s what happened and it’s taken off!” he continued.

Dave Earle from the BC Trucking Association (right) thanks Ed Genberg, Branch Manager from Ocean Trailer, for sponsoring the Dutchlicious food truck in Chilliwack, providing truck drivers with free meals. Photo courtesy Meals for Truck Drivers BC Facebook page.

“We try to be good corporate citizens,” Keay said. “We try and make sure that the things we support make sense and help people. We’re helping the food banks, and some of the places that deliver care to the societies, outreach groups, we’re helping those out right now,” he said. “It’s not why you do it, but it’s the right thing to do and we’re lucky to be able to do that.”

Cookshack Cravings food truck in Kamloops sponsored by Ocean Trailer. Photo courtesy Ocean Trailer.

Ocean Trailer’s initial sponsorship has spawned a regular flow of sponsorship offers since then. An individual in Kelowna, Tony Laurie, followed quickly behind Ocean’s example and offered the same $2,500 to launch the Kelowna location. Although Tony has spent the last 16 years in the industry, he made this donation personally from him and his family as he was just in the process of buying a business in the industry when this crisis hit.

Another company to step up and offer help was Inland, one of the oldest and largest Kenworth dealers in the world, as well as a provider of heavy equipment in Western Canada. “I called up Greg and asked how Inland could help,” said Jason Wheeler, vice president of Canadian Operations for Inland, and secretary treasurer and board member of the BCTA. “The concern was that if the food trucks were set up and didn’t get enough business that they would simply move on and do something else. We felt that by sponsoring a day per week rotating through Chilliwack, Kamloops, Kelowna and Prince George that at least we would give those food trucks a reason to stick around.”

Inland is sponsoring #ThankaTruckerThursdays. Photo courtesy Inland Group.

Inland is now sponsoring the “Thank A Trucker Thursday”, sponsoring a food truck in the card lock in Chilliwack. “As an ex truck driver myself I know that a truck does not fit through a drive-thru and for whatever reason drive-thrus don’t allow walk up customers which was the only option left to many drivers,” explained Wheeler.

“A truck drivers job is hard enough before the Covid shut downs. Now with a shortage of places to eat, and washroom facilities, things just got a lot harder,” continued Wheeler. “We just wanted to do our bit and say thanks.”

Josh Schaper, Product Support Representative, Inland.
Photo courtesy Inland Group.

“The event has been successful and all the truckers that came through were extremely appreciative of Inland showing our support and providing a free meal,” said Josh Schaper, Product Support Representative for Inland, who along with Wheeler, represented Inland at the first “Thank A Trucker Thursday”, providing meals from the popular Dutchlicious food truck.

The Meals movement is growing exponentially, but it won’t get far without help. “We have requests for food trucks to be located in other parts of the province (and beyond),” said Greg Munden. “We have a lot of food trucks available and wanting to locate in the Lower Mainland (BC),” Munden explained, “but we need food trucks for some of the rural, high-traffic routes that currently have limited services.”

Jeremy Jean, proprietor of Smokey J’s Smoked Mmmeats food truck, helping feed truckers in Prince George, B.C. Photo courtesy Meals for Truck Drivers BC Facebook page.

“We are always happy to receive more sponsorships – particularly for driver meals – for people who would just like to say thanks to the drivers who are keeping the economy rolling,” Munden said.

Truck Drivers: The Most Essential Service Of All

“The silver-lining around the dark cloud of COVID-19 has brought to the forefront, maybe for the first time, the important work that professional drivers do,” said Munden. “Unfortunately, it has taken a pandemic for the general public to realize that, like we like to say, ‘if you got it, it came by truck,’” he continued. “I think this has never been more apparent to people as store shelves have run short of stock at different times through this crisis. ‘When is your next truck arriving’ has never become more important to people. We would like to keep this awareness and appreciation going beyond this crisis to provide drivers with the respect that they deserve for the jobs they do.”

“It has brought to light the importance of providing services to these people while they do their important job,” Munden continued. “As service levels return to ‘normal’, we still believe there is a long term need to provide easy access to information for the trucking community to find crucial services to allow them to do their jobs effectively, safely, and comfortably,” he concluded.

The Future And Beyond

This grass-roots program is being transitioned over to the BC Trucking Association, who has dedicated staff to moving this forward. “It’s ironic that we have a pandemic to thank for the positive focus on the trucking industry right now,” said Dave Earle, BCTA. “We understand the early response of restaurants and fueling stations restricting access to protect their own staff. The silver lining has been people changing that reaction, reaching out, and finding ways to appreciate our industry and particularly to support professional truck drivers,” continued Earle.

“The BC Trucking Association (BCTA) is proud to help with the food truck initiative and sincerely grateful to the businesses and sponsors who are asking to take part,” Earle said. “We’ve been representing the industry for over a hundred years; we’re not surprised by its commitment to deliver, but it’s really heartening to see others acknowledge and appreciate the generosity and professionalism of our truck drivers.”

“BCTA is creating a website where drivers and trucking companies can go to get the information about the services (not just food trucks, but also all existing brick-and-mortar businesses that have taken steps to accommodate drivers) they need while on the road,” said Greg Munden. “Not just BC; we are working with the Canadian Trucking Alliance to make this ‘the repository’ for information nationally,” concluded Munden.

Find more about the Meals for Truck Drivers BC movement at www.mealsfortruckers.ca and Facebook.com/feedatrucker.

As of press time, these are the generous companies who have offered sponsorship:

• Ocean Trailer

• Inland Group

• Kal Tire

• Tolko Industries

• GNS Freight Solutions

• Canada’s Energy Citizens

• Tony Laurie

• Harbour International

• George & Bobbie Harrison

• ColdFront

• Tridem Services

• Fripp Warehousing

This does not include the myriad of other location partners who have provided everything from portable restrooms, signage, nitrogren-charged coolers, and more.

Thank You to these Food Trucks and their proprietors for helping out:

• Deanna Bell of Cookshack Cravings in Kamloops

• Ian Lockett of Surf Side California Tacos in Kelowna

• Paul Keeris of Dutchlicious in Chilliwack

• Jeremy Jean of Smokey J’s Smoked MMMeats in Prince George

By Linda Horn