Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The East Side community of Buffalo continues to experience a "food desert" as the Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue remains closed following the horrific mass shooting that took the lives of 10 people on May 14.
As residents of the neighborhood continue deal without having a primary source of food and essential goods for their households, the Western New York community and others have done all they can to support Buffalo's East Side with donations of those goods that have been made available at distribution sites. One of those main sites is located at 347 East Ferry Street at the Resource Council of WNY.
As volunteers and others do all they can to help local residents of the East Side neighborhood, McDonald's also provided some support on Sunday and Monday with the arrival of the "McRig" to serve meals to the community.
"The local owner/operators brought to light the situation that happened with the shooting at the Tops, and knew because of the underserving of the community with food and everything that they wanted to help out. So they called the corporate office, and we sent the 'McRig' out," said Global Operations Manager of McDonald's, Dan Neeson. "Normally, it's only used for natural disasters and big events, but the local owner/operators basically presented their case and we came down in 48 hours."
For two days, the "McRig" served meals for residents from 10 a.m. ET to 3 p.m. ET to anyone who came down to East Ferry Street, free of charge. As many people went to pick up bags of goods to re-supply themselves with for home, they also got the chance to enjoy a meal courtesy of the folks at McDonald's.
"This is a 53-foot rig. We have two grills on here, with the six clamshell grills that we cook the burgers, we have a fry station, a full fry station," said "McRig" volunteer Linda Rodrigues. "We can actually supply anywhere between 2,000 to 5,000 people at a time."
It was the work of local owner and operator Dave Singelyn who helped bring in the "McRig" to help serve the East Side community. He owns most of the inner-city McDonald's restaurants in Buffalo, and wanted to do his part to help out.
When news of the "McRig" coming to town became known, other local owners and operators, as well as several workers in the Western New York region flocked to East Ferry Street to volunteer and serve the residents in need during these difficult times.
One of the local owners helping out on Sunday and Monday was Sandy Haefner. She was appreciative of the company sending the "McRig" out to Buffalo, and feels it was great to have the large food truck on hand to serve the community when it was most needed.
"I think it's important. We live in the communities, we work in the communities, these people live and work for us in these communities," Haefner said. "I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, so my heart and soul is here, and most people of Western New York, their heart and souls in this. So anything we can do to help the community, make it feel better, make probably us feel better too, we're going to do that.
"We're one community, and we're Buffalo Strong. Everybody's there for each other constantly. It always has been in Buffalo. It's pretty, pretty special here to live in Buffalo, New York. It really is."
As volunteers were hard at work cooking and serving food for the residents at the mobile Tops distribution site, the members of the community were incredibly gracious and thankful for what Neeson and McDonald's brought to their neighborhood. The actions of the community helped open the eyes of Neeson for what the people of Buffalo are all about.
"It's just incredible, and it certainly shows Buffalo as the 'City of [Good] Neighbors,'" Neeson said. "Everybody's been very, very thankful and gracious, and from the police officers, to the community, to everybody going by, everybody's willing to pitch in and do anything. So you can't say enough about it. It's been great."
As for Rodrigues, she came to Buffalo from Chicago, as she follows the "McRig" wherever it may go to help support a community across the county. She understands the importance of being on-hand at any point to help those in need when they need it most.
"One of our McDonald's values is really supporting and fostering the community," she said. "It's really important to us to volunteer and support the communities and where they work and where we are. So we're out here volunteering and helping out wherever we can and whenever we can. It's really important to us."
Even the youth of today understands the value of helping those most in need, as seven-year-old Matthew was in Buffalo on Monday to not only help out his dad, but also give back to the community.
"It's pretty great seeing everybody happy. I really wish everybody could have this amount of resources in the world," Matthew said.
