Some local business owners in St. Petersburg teamed up to send a couple of food trucks and four other vehicles loaded with supplies to Ft. Myers on Tuesday to help Hurricane Ian survivors.

“The one thing that I’m good at is cooking,” said Ahmad Alaraj, 29, owner of The Shawarma King. “So, it’s my time to shine and go feed people.”

Jerome Buggs, owner of the Just One Taste of STL food truck, said helping our neighbors to the South is a “no-brainer” because it could’ve easily been the Tampa Bay area that got hit hard.

“We’re going to go down and give some relief to those that are in distress,” he said. “We have to look out for one another.”    

The food truck owners plan to serve 800 meals in Ft. Myers on Tuesday. They bought entire sections of items at a warehouse store in St. Petersburg on Monday to get enough food for the trip.

“We cleaned them out on the potato salad, the rolls, the hot dogs,” said Alaraj. “The chicken, we almost cleaned them out.” ​

The owners said they’re donating their own money, food and time for the relief effort. Alaraj said The Dog Bar owners and their customers also donated money and supplies.

“You have to be a blessing to someone else when god is blessing you,” said Buggs. “This is just the first day. We’re going to do it again.”

Alaraj worked for three years at the Parkshore Grill under Chef Tyson Grant before starting his food truck business last year. In order to cook hundreds of meals, Alaraj needed a commercial kitchen. Chef Grant allowed him to use the Parkshore Grill kitchen to prepare his food.

“Big thanks for Chef Tyson and his crew helping us out,” said Alaraj. “Thank you to everyone who donated supplies to take down there.”​

Charity runs in Alaraj’s veins. Last year, we showed you how The Shawarma King was giving away free meals to the homeless and under served communities during the holidays.

“I feel the main purpose of being a chef is feeding people that’s in need when it’s times like this,” he said. “We’re trying to do this every week.” ​