Danny Flores and the folks at Van Acker Construction who heard reports of firefighters working grueling 72-hour shifts decided they wanted to help out crews by purchasing $700 worth of food and drinks at the Safeway on Vine Street. One of the managers at Safeway decided they wanted to help too and when Flores went to check out his order, the grocers comped the entire purchase.
“My boss, Gary Van Acker, is a resident of Healdsburg and on Thursday he gave me a call and said, ‘Let’s see what we can help out the firefighters with,’” Flores said. Flores saw some of the fire crews fueling up at the gas station in Healdsburg and Flores asked how folks can help. “They said they had no resources (at the time), so I went and grabbed my utility trailer and headed to Safeway that Thursday.”
Flores, on behalf of Van Acker, bought numerous sandwiches, cookies, chips and cases of water. The first grocery trip he made Van Acker paid the $600 bill, but during his second trip to the store the clerk recognized him and brought over the manager who zeroed out the purchase.
He said he was surprised and thankful that the Safeway crew helped him out. “It was a big surprise, hats off to Safeway for doing that.”
After his shopping was complete he headed out to a base camp and loaded off the food and water.
“I called my boss and he said let’s do it again,” Flores said.
When Flores went back to Safeway on Monday morning, Aug. 24, the manager Steve, comped the entire purchase again.
“Thank you to Safeway, thank you to the firefighters who are risking their lives. It is only a little part that I can do, and I am going to keep doing it,” Flores said.
He said he’ll continue to provide food to crews wherever he can find them. “I’ll try to go out to Guerneville in that area (soon),” Flores said. “It feels great doing it.”
For Flores, fire is nothing new. Flores, who lives in Rincon Valley, had to evacuate during the 2017 Sonoma County fires.
Flores and Van Acker aren’t the only ones helping out first responders. Two tables worth of food was donated to the Healdsburg Fire Department from various community members. People brought fruit, hand sanitizer, boxes of donuts, Acre pizza, lasagna and homemade baked good with handwritten thank you notes taped to the containers.
“It is something we can give back to the firefighters,” Flores said of donating food to fire crews.
