Help on Wheels
When disaster strikes, Guy hits the road and starts cooking.
Daimler Trucks North America LLC
Written by Kelsey Hurwitz for Food Network Magazine
Guy Fieri is a serious car lover, but the vehicle that truly has his heart is a different sort of ride: It's the Disaster Relief Trailer, a mobile kitchen that Guy and his team drive around to feed first responders. He came up with the idea when a wildfire spread through his hometown in 2017.
"I was in Texas at an event, and my dad called me to tell me half of Santa Rosa was burning," he says.
He flew back to California, then set up a barbecue trailer and giant smokers in a parking lot, cooked for firefighters and evacuees and saw how uplifting a hot meal can be. After that, Guy and some chef friends started feeding other rescue workers when fires broke out, and culinary students and neighbors started pitching in too.
Brian Daly
Guy and his team wanted to grow the effort—and did they ever. The Knuckle Sandwich crew turned to SDG Trailers out of Waycross, GA, to build a 48-foot mobile kitchen trailer that can feed 10,000 people a day. Guy even got his commercial driver's license so he can tow the trailer himself with a custom Freightliner SportChassis semi truck. The trailer doesn't just wait for emergencies anymore; Guy takes it out to host events for first responders, military and other community workers throughout the year. With three more trailers in the works, Guy is gearing up to bring meals and comfort to even more people in need, coast to coast.
Brian Daly
Team Effort
Volunteers help plan, prep, cook, serve and clean up. It's a huge job: Guy customized the trailer so he could produce as many meals as possible.
"Nobody's ever designed a trailer like this," he says. "They had to put all the equipment in first and then build the walls around it."
Brian Daly
Big Batches
Chef Domenica Catelli mixed stuffing at a Thanksgiving event for first responders last year. Te trailer has ovens, deep fryers, a smoker, an ice machine and cold storage.
Line of Duty
Firefighters battling one of the largest wildfires in California history grabbed food from the trailer in Susanville in August 2021.
"This could be the first meal that emergency workers have had in 36 hours," says chef Crista Luedtke, a volunteer. "It's very rewarding to help people in need."
Driving Home Gratitude
When the trailer isn't involved in relief efforts, it caters appreciation events like one that Guy attended for Veterans of Foreign Wars in New Jersey last year.
"This veteran comes up to me with four grandkids in tow," Guy recalls. "I said, 'Your grandpa is my hero. Your grandpa gave us a free country and the reason I'm here is not to meet you, it's to thank him.' And this guy got these huge tears and he leaned in and said, 'Never have my grandkids looked at me that way.' That's the kind of stuff we're doing. We need to spend mroe time thanking service people."
Want to Get Involved?
To learn more about volunteering or to make a donation, visit guyfierifoundation.org.
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