John “Long John” Loomer Sr. manned the sizzling grill on Sunday as grease spat from the hearty hamburger patties he pressed. Through the steam clouds rising on the other side, Breanna Keller was dressing up buns with all of the fixings.

They weren’t at a backyard barbecue. They were at the eastbound rest stop after milepost 7 between Coeur d’ Alene and Post Falls.

“We’re just people helping people,” said Joe “Tator” Wilson, who, along with his wife Kendra “Gator” Dodge, gathered together eight other volunteers to serve free meals to truck drivers coming through the weigh station.

The coronavirus pandemic led to closures of nonessential businesses including sit-down restaurants, which means truck drivers who are transporting essentials have fewer options to get a much-needed meal.

“The hardest part about being a truck driver is you can’t just pull off anywhere and go to a sit-down (restaurant), so then you go ‘OK, fast food,’ but you can’t just go through a drive-thru,” said truck driver Jerry Smith, who has been delivering materials used by hospitals in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak. He said he can use delivery services, like GrubHub, if he stops at a motel.

Driver Bradley DeKok, who was transporting machinery from Western Washington to Montana, said that while the drive-thru dilemma is a fact of trucker life, it is also difficult to get a rig off the freeway, into town and to a parking lot large enough to accommodate it, while also finding a place to walk in and order food. He chatted with the volunteers at the rest stop, who thanked him for working through a global crisis. DeKok was all smiles as he walked away with a double cheeseburger and a doggy bag of other treats.

Besides burgers, all drivers who stopped for the meal were offered prepackaged cookies and pastries, a bag of chips, potato salad, candy, hot tea and coffee. All individuals who assembled the meals wore gloves and masks in compliance with COVID-19 recommendations, and visitors were not allowed to self-serve.

Wilson and Dodge reflected on what it took to put together the community effort. Wilson said Coeur d’Alene-based Pastry & More donated 200 pastries for the event, and D-Bess Food Truck manned the westbound rest stop. The volunteers, including Wilson and Dodge, are bikers from Sandpoint or members of the Eagles club. After assembling a group chat last Monday to discuss logistics, they decided on the rest stop at milepost 7.

On the other side of Interstate 90, D-Bess Food Truck owners Cindy and David Bessey waited from the comfort of a custom-made food truck that they built themselves. The Besseys, too, were assembling burgers and offering hot dogs. It was business as usual for the food-truckers, except that they weren’t accepting payment.

The pandemic has recently affected business, because the spots that D-Bess Food Truck usually stops at, such as North Idaho College, are closed. The Besseys have abandoned their usual route in order to migrate to new customers and have had some luck, but deciding to serve free food to truckers on a quiet Sunday was easy for the pair. The Besseys caught word of the free meal donations on Saturday and by Sunday morning at 11:30 had set up shop until 4:30 in the afternoon.

“I always eat the same food, same, same, same,” said Tony Valdez, who had been driving a Peterbilt for four days from Maryland. “When I get the chance to get different (food), I do.”

Valdez was en route to Portland and said he would’ve eaten snacks or canned soup.

The organizers said they plan to come out again, perhaps in two weeks, after reorganizing and gathering more food.

“It was a real pleasure doing something good for the people who are keeping this country going right now,” said volunteer Mike Victorino. “They’re heroes.”