BBQ Restaurant Owner Gives 400+ Free Meals Daily To Derecho Victims

Aug 31, 2020 by apost team

Willie Fairley, an Iowa restaurant owner, is firing up his grill to supply hundreds of free meals for his community in Cedar Rapids after thousands of residents fall victim to a line of devastating storms earlier this month.

Every week in 2020 seems to bring a new problem to the light. With one issue after another, we never know what to expect next.

Several buildings were impacted by this natural disaster and plenty of Iowa residents were left homeless. The governer of the impacted region sought federal assistance to help the state recover from the effects of the disaster.

According to CNN, the city of Cedar Rapids was affected the most during the storms. While the federal and state governments are doing their best to support those affected by the storms, local business owners are also doing their part to help the community.

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Cedar Rapids is currently having a difficult time recovering from the disaster and officials have recorded almost over 800 damaged residential and commercial buildings. These damages include severe collapses of roofs, walls, ceilings, and floors.

According to the authorities, about 50 people had been hospitalized due to storm-related injuries. While these issues cannot be fixed by just any person, this business owner is doing the most he can to help.

Willie Fairley owns the restaurant, Willie Ray's Q Shack, a popular barbeque diner in Cedar Rapids. In attempting to help his community, he has decided to provide free meals to everyone who was impacted by the storms. To date, he has distributed at least 400 meals daily in the aftermath of the disaster. His meals have included chicken, burgers, hot dogs, and cooking ribs. He has rejected 15 offers for catering in order to focus all of his efforts on helping the community.

In an interview with CNN, he stated, "Money will come but people are in need right now. The main reason we're doing it free is that there's been a lot of people donating to help us keep feeding people. So, we figure we'll just do it to make sure everybody gets something."

Willie has become somewhat of a hero in his community and he has received positive affirmations because of his efforts. His restaurant was even nominated for the Discover Eat It Forward program which awards $25,000 to Black-owned restaurants. Regardless of his newfound fame, Willie continues to provide food for his community until all recovery efforts have been completed.

He has also decided to provide food for a homeless shelter at least once every week. He will continue to fulfill this commitment even after everything goes back to normal.

Cedar Rapids is currently in chaos, with almost every home impacted in some way by the storms. There are long lines at the gas stations, sold-out generators, poor cellphone service, large gas leaks, and downed powerlines in nearly every neighborhood, as reported by The New York Times. With no trash pickup and air-conditioning, this is indeed one of the worst summers the residents of Cedar Rapids have ever had to face.

Power companies are currently trying their best to restore power to the nearly 600,000 residents who lost power in Iowa. This number goes up to approximately two million throughout the entire Midwest. The request for federal support has been approved and state officials hope to see the government assist in their recovery efforts soon.

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