- A semi truck carrying tens of thousands of pounds of food ended up in a ditch in Alaska.
- The food was still salvageable, but the stores that were to take delivery of it could no longer accept it.
- Thanks to the handiwork of the towing company that recovered the truck, a public kitchen in Anchorage was able to accept the food and feed countless individuals and families.
Like every other place on the planet, Anchorage, Alaska, is dealing with hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Many people are out of work, and as funds run low, public meal centers (or “soup kitchens,” if you’re old school), have faced increased stress on their sometimes meager supplies.
For Bean’s Cafe And Children’s Lunchbox, a meal center in Anchorage, some foods — specifically produce — were running very low. Then, a sort of modern miracle happened, and it started with a semi truck sliding off the road. The accident resulted in no injuries, but it did manage to feed a whole lot of people in need.
As KTUU reports, the crashed semi was packed with tens of thousands of pounds of food, including a huge amount of fresh fruits and vegetables. Much of the food was still totally fine after the crash, but the company on the receiving end deemed it unfit for sale. Vulcan Towing, the company tasked with recovering the vehicle from the ditch, was left with nearly 40,000 pounds of food that needed a home.
Over a dozen employees from the towing company worked through the night to salvage the food and, thanks to a connection with Bean’s Cafe, they managed to find a place where it could be put to good use. The meal center reportedly provides regular meals for nearly 1,000 people, and with the holiday crunch and pandemic making life tougher than ever, the center was in need of donations.
40,000 pounds of fresh food is just about the biggest donation you could possibly ask for, and Bean’s Cafe was incredibly grateful for the help. “We were just about out of fresh produce,” Lisa Saunder, CEO of Bean’s Cafe told KTUU. “This time of year, fresh produce gets harder and harder for us to get and so to be given this gift of produce that we can be given right away for meals… it’s gonna help so many people. It really is kind of a little bit of a Christmas miracle.”
The fact that the crash resulted in no injuries, and that it ultimately fed a lot of people in a time of great need, is definitely a feel-good story for just about everyone. The lone individual who might not have been thrilled at the way things unfolded is the driver of the truck, but he or she can at least take comfort in the fact that the accident had a happy ending.
