Bay Area Company Brings Award-Winning Disaster Relief Efforts to Ventura County, Expanding its Network with Local Restaurants, Food Truck Operators, Caterers and Food Purveyors to Feed Locals when Disaster Strikes
Off the Grid (OTG), the Bay Area’s premier food truck and catering experience company, is preparing Ventura County for wildfire season well before disaster strikes. The company is bringing its award-winning Food Responders program to Ventura by partnering with local restaurants, food trucks, catering businesses and food purveyors to feed first responders and locals in the event that their local community is impacted by wildfires or other natural disasters.
Off the Grid has worked with the State of California and the American Red Cross to identify more than 40 counties that are expected to be the hardest hit locations of wildfire season this year. To help prepare these communities before disaster strikes, Off the Grid is interested in tapping local small businesses with a mission to bring wholesome, delicious meals to those in need.
Off the Grid’s Food Responders program encompasses an inclusive relief platform created to not only support communities and individuals in need, but also lift up small, local business economies typically impacted by emergencies. In 2020, the programs not only nearly 1 million people in the Bay Area, but provided more than $10 million in revenue to restaurants and food truck operators who have been hit hardest during the COVID-19 pandemic and other natural disasters.
In anticipation of wildfire season, Off the Grid is seeking to add more than 200 Food Responders throughout California including Ventura County, bringing its fleet of small food businesses to more than 400. Food Responders include restaurants, food truck operators, catering businesses and cottage food purveyors.
More than just a response to wildfire season, Off the Grid’s Food Responder program is intended to provide local support in Ventura for other unknown opportunities or natural disasters in the future.
“We’re working with local businesses in Ventura County now because we want to help each local community be prepared for the worst,” said Matt Cohen, Founder & CEO of Off the Grid. “When you’re in the midst of a crisis, you’re in panic mode. We want to help support local businesses to connect as emergency resources well in advance of a developing crisis so that they can deploy quickly to meet any need. Moreover, we’re working with these businesses to offer quality, delicious meals that can make someone affected by a natural disaster feel better – both physically and mentally.”
The Food Responders program is intended to be efficient and flexible in order to adapt to the ever-changing nature of disaster relief. By successfully creating and executing these turnkey food relief programs Off the Grid was recently named to Fast Company’s “World Changing Ideas” for 2021.
For more information on Off the Grid’s Food Responders, visit www.OfftheGrid.com.
About Off the Grid: Off the Grid (OTG) is a mobile food platform that connects people over a shared love of food and community. Throughout the past decade, OTG has encouraged and inspired the mobile food movement throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with curated food experiences, innovative events, and corporate dining. Utilizing its agile mobile events platform, OTG has supported more than 600 entrepreneurial food vendors and small businesses (known as Creators) with opportunities to connect with their local community. Amidst the current climate—including the COVID-19 pandemic—OTG has expanded its mission to serve the community by providing disaster and emergency food relief to the greater Bay Area and beyond. Efforts include, feeding frontline workers, serving first responders during wildfire season, supporting BIPOC businesses, and providing food assistance to food insecure neighbors. For more information please visit https://offthegrid.com/ and follow OTG on Twitter: @OTGSF, Instagram: @OffTheGridSF, and Facebook: @OffTheGridSF.
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