‘It looks like a war zone’: Local food truck travels to Greenfield to help ongoing relief efforts

EAST MOLINE, Ill. (KWQC) – It will be a long road to recovery for the town of Greenfield, Iowa after they were struck by a deadly tornado last month, but people from all over the country continue to help their community.

Including a food truck from the Quad Cities.

Soon after hearing the news of the devastation, operators of Toni’s Smokin’ Grill from East Moline gathered donations and took their services to western Iowa to lend a helping hand.

Andre Cato and Toni Bare teamed up with their food truck to provide some relief to Greenfield just days after the community was torn apart by a violent EF-4 tornado on May 21.

The pair brought donated items along with doughnuts and sandwiches to give away in the morning before they got on the grill and started cooking hot smoked food for people affected by the tornado and other volunteers.

“If it happened to us, I would hope people would help us the same way,” Bare said.

When they arrived in Greenfield, they were pleasantly surprised to see so many people there to help as well.

“We still have humanity,” Bare said. “We still have people who care, we still have people who can put aside whatever differences they have to come to one common goal, and that’s just to help.”

Both said they met people from all over Iowa and other states putting in the work to help Greenfield get back on their feet.

“It made us feel real good,” Cato said. “We were part of a system that was working and everybody coming together to pull together…They had everything organized. It was structured real beautifully.”

Despite the overwhelming response from people trying to help, there is still much more work to be done in Greenfield.

“It’s gonna be a minute,” Bare said. “It’s gonna be a little bit before they get back to any normalcy over there at all. 30 minutes in, I was like, oh yeah, we’re coming back. Got to come back.”

Although they both plan to head back to Greenfield later this month, they say they will need the public’s support to do so.

They said monetary donations would be best in order to cover expenses and provide food.

You can donate directly to their fund, at Cattlemen’s Meat Market located at 100 17th Avenue in East Moline.

For information on other ways you can help, you can call Toni at 563-289-7399.

They say physical items needed the most are coolers, sleeping bags, diapers and wipes.

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