ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Dozens of firefighters fought to control a fire at the USF St. Pete Campus Marine Science Lab on Saturday.
When fighting a fire that’s this intense, food is needed.
So when the call came in, Gateway Subs co-founder Morgan Zook said they didn’t hesitate.
“We feed them a lot,” he said. “And [a firefighter] goes, ‘are you guys open?’ I go, ‘well, we’re kind of closing up right now. What do you need?’ He goes, ‘there’s a massive fire going on at USF St. Pete campus. These guys haven’t eaten in hours; we got to feed them.’ I’m like, ‘say less.’”
It did not matter to Zook that they were shutting down for the night.
One message in their group chat later, they got to work.
In just 45 minutes, Zook said they made around 60 sandwiches.
“As we were driving in with the sandwiches loaded up in coolers, we didn’t know what we were getting into,” he said. “All the roads were blocked off.”
Firefighters were thrilled to get food after working for hours.
Not only did Zook and his team get these sandwiches to them, but they did it for free.
“We want to feed them,” Zook said. “They do so much for our community, and we just want to. This is the least we can do.”