COLUMBIA, S.C. — Some truck drivers turned a $14,000 loss into free food for a local community.
Despite the cold on Saturday, pallets full of lettuce were lifted out of a trailer. Brittany Castro, a truck driver, and her husband Bob were left with 41,000 pounds of produce.
She said the lettuce was rejected because the temperature was too cold. Although she said the lettuce was still good to eat, finding a place to take it was difficult.
"The food banks didn't want it because it was rejected so we started looking for some farms in the area." she added, "It's not like we really had a choice. Of course, we could've charged people for it, but we didn't see no sense in that."
Tracy Allen, of Allen Acres Farm, got a call about the leftover lettuce and volunteered her yard as a landing spot for some of the pallets. She invited the community to pick up free food.
"We thought it would be really nice to help community with community and I reached out to all of the local Facebook groups that I'm a part of in hopes that some people would come out and get some lettuce," Allen said.
Maria Lashway lives down the street in Irmo. She stopped by on Saturday to fill up. Although two full bags of lettuce isn't cutting her grocery bill in half, she said that in a time when everything seems to be more expensive, saving anywhere is a huge help.
"I'd take more if more people wanted it and pass it around, but it's just a nice thing they're doing," Lashway said. "We're having chef's salad tonight."