BBQ Food Truck Kicked Out Of Town For Feeding Hurricane Victims Without A Permit

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Tim Pearce

Jack Roundtree was forced to stop selling BBQ to victims in Green Cove Springs, Fla., shortly after Hurricane Irma passed over the town Sept. 10 because he was operating without a permit.

Two Green Cove Springs police officers delivered the message from the city manager shortly after Roundtree set up his food truck in the parking lot of an old restaurant. At the time, 90 percent of the city’s power grid was down and a hot meal was difficult to find.

“This is such a great little town, but it seems like the people who run it do their best to keep it from progressing,” one resident, who witnessed Roundtree being ordered to pack up, posted on Facebook, according to Florida’s Clay Today. “THANKS Green Cove Springs City Manager. Shame on you!”

If Roundtree had come to city officials and requested a permit, he would have been allowed to serve utility workers around the city, Mayor Mitch Timberlake told Reason.

“He is a commercial food truck operator, and he knows the local ordinances for food truck operation and had a responsibility to reach to the city to get a permit for what he wanted to do,” Timberlake told Reason. “We don’t prohibit food trucks. There are times and places where we welcome them.”

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