Help Alex and Frank rebuild The Ridge

Hi everyone we are The Sexy Panda Food Truck from Sacramento Ca. Little did we know going to bed last Thursday 11-8 that our lives directions would be changed for good. Waking up the morning of Friday 11-9 I turned on the TV and saw that the small fire I saw pop up on the news basically turned into a monster and wiped out the whole town of Paradise, Ca. I sat around and pondered what I could do to really help people in the situation and I spent about 30 minutes debating making food and just taking it up or risking the drive in my food truck with nearly 450000 miles on it. After a quick breakfast beer (don’t judge, Thursday was a long night!) the logical decision was evident so I quickly secured my animals, packed a backpack and got in my car and headed to restaurant depot. There really was no plan and at this point I was just going to head up towards Chico and find a group of people and feed them maybe a dinner and a breakfast and head back hoping that I had made a few peoples day better in a time of dire peril. I got to restaurant depot and plotted out a small plan in my head about what I could buy to feed the most people with all the money I had in my business account, I made a couple quick Facebook posts in some Chico forums so I could pinpoint a location to get to and then went into restaurant depot. I literally drained my business account of almost the entire 5k that was in it. Buying enough stuff to feed as many people meals as possible. I knew I had enough product left from the previous week that I didn’t really need any money to get the ball rolling again when we got home. I got in line at restaurant depot and it was really long so I started digging around Facebook and found a post saying there were people at Walmart and there were no services. So that made my decision simple. At this time I also saw that my main guy that runs the truck for me Alex made a post asking how he could help the fire victims. I called him told him what I was doing and he was at the shop getting the truck ready before I even finished checking out. He came as prepared as me. With a backpack and a days worth of clothes in it. We got the truck loaded, filled the propane, filled the gas. Did our checks and headed out. What’s the first thing that happens. The serpentine belt slips off. Of course. So we basically got everything put back together and changed with some duct tape and a Swiss Army knife and I crossed my fingers and just hoped we’d get up there! 3 hours in the road and we finally pulled up to Walmart and spent a few minutes surveying the land and decided on the best spot. There were not that many people there but we decided we knew Walmart. We knew they had an open camping policy. So people would come. We spent about 30 mins getting everything warm. We opened the doors and served hot food to about 150 people that night for dinner. We quickly made the decision that lots of people were still pulling into the parking lot at around midnight so we would stay open all night and feed people as needed. We probably served another 150 burgers between midnight and 4am. We decided we would have hot breakfast ready around 5am and we quickly prepped between 4 and 5 getting everything ready. Once daylight hit is when we realized things were going to get crazy. We must of served around 500 breakfasts between 5 am and 8 am. We quickly ran out of all breakfast food and I made the decision very quickly and without hesitation to start using my personal credit cards to get more breakfast items. Around 11am we finally took a minute to let what had happened soak in and game plan the rest of what we were going to do since we had dinner food left since it was slow. At this point re quickly realized besides one person with a small parking space of clothes that there were no devices in this parking lot. No state, federal or local anything, no assistance from Walmart. There was nothing. This is when I made decision number 2. We were going to help these people however we can. Everything else will just work out was my thought. So in Walmart I literally bought them out of everything people needed from what I could tell. Tooth brushes, deodorant, tooth paste, hand wipes, pet food, beanies, gloves and at this point I don’t remember what else but it was nearly 4 shopping carts completely full. I thought that would be good to get people by. Wishing 2 hours everything we purchased was taken and used up. Over the course of the next few hours I managed to spend nearly 7k out of my own pocket buying all kinds of various items. Mostly larger quantities of the same things. At this point though Walmart was basically out of every item people needed and I legitimately bought every small bag of pet food in the entire store. Our dinner service was the legit turning point for what was about to happen. We met an amazing gentleman the first night named Dave who has become an amazing contact and the reason a lot of this was put together. The first day we were there my mindset was no donations no anything we are just doing this because we want to and we are leaving before anyone really notices. Dave though insisted that while his house burned down he didn’t care what we said we were swiping his credit card for 200 dollars and we weren’t allowed to leave either (his word were much more vulgar and inappropriate but much better at conveying his point) after a couple hours of this I took his card and swiped it. A new stone was turned. I’m going to skip the middle you can easily catch up on that part via Instagram or Facebook just search SexyPandaTruck. Fast forward to now. In 6 days we’ve built up a small production facility. There’s still no County,State or Federal anyone in this parking lot. We are basically playing FEMA, Red Cross and Salvation Army for these people with the donations we have received. We are cooking over 1000 meals a day and also now as of today. Delivering meals to first responders who haven’t had access to hot food in a long while more than likely. Our aim is to take out 300 meals a day and deliver them. The Walmart parking lot is the only place in town left with space yet it isn’t an official evacuation center so there is no aid. Walmart barely wants anyone there. They took all there garbage cans away. Moved everyone into the dirt and treats most of us like criminals half the time. Our reach has become massive, our operation is running with 15 volunteers at this very moment. Fuel alone with the 6 generators and 11 propane tanks is nearing 500 a day. We’ve spent somewhere between 25 and 30k if I had to guess already to get up and running where we are. We have a chance and realistically for the people in this parking lot at least for now we are there only hope. The only person who puts a smile on there face in the midst of this terrible tragedy. I have never been so humbled in my entire life. Me and my crew are still open 24 hours a day with a meal, hot coffee or cocoa, water or just a conversation always ready to go. We’ve grown to love this community in a very short amount of time and we as well as so many other people would be devastated to have to leave. Every penny donated will go straight back into this community without going through red tape. Anyone that has questions or doubts about this is invited to come down and volunteer with us and see our operation. We are here for the long run and to help the community rebuild #paradisestrong