What do a car dealership, food trucks and Meals on Wheels have in common?
The answer: They're all trying to make this holiday season a little brighter for homebound seniors in San Diego County.
"Fat Ron Burgundy up," said a vendor from Groggy's Food truck. Josh Martindale smelled the food from across the street and quickly ordered the sandwich. "Its got cheese steak, mozzarella sticks, fries, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and what ever that Groggy sauce is."
It was a foodies delight outside this car dealership in Kearny Mesa as fifteen food trucks from San Diego offered a wide variety of tastes to patrons with 20 percent of the proceeds going to support Meals on Wheels.
"Oh, I didn't know that. I just showed up for the food, that's very cool though," Elana Remas Zagorsky said.
And so did hordes of others crowding what normally would be a car dealership. Subaru provided the space because Meals On Wheels is one of five charities it supports annually.
"We help the seniors that are homebound. They're not grocery shopping, they can't cook for themselves and you know what, their greatest fear is the unknown and this fiscal cliff and everything everybody is talking about is frightening them. And the donations have slowed down due to this," Debbie Case, CEO of Meals On Wheels said.
In fact, the last couple of months of the year can be tough for any non-profit organization or food truck vendor, but an event like this can be golden. That's because every patron is given three golden coins to vote for the best food truck of the day. The winner receives a certificate of recognition and most likely a new customer.
Rich Huarte with New York Rye won last year's competition and likes his chances this year.
"I think the odds are very good," Huarte said. And the odds of raising more money look good for Meals on Wheels. Last year more than 600 people turned out in the rain, but on this day there was nothing but sunshine.
"It's already bigger volume than it was last year at this time, so it looks pretty good and I'm glad to see people coming out and supporting. I think we'll get a lot of hits," Huarte said.
Besides the space, the car dealership is also donating to Meals On Wheels $250 for every car sold.
