Taco Bus’ Bexley location in Land O’Lakes, Florida. Credit: Photo via tacobus/Facebook

Hurricanes Milton and Helene have left a lot of Tampa Bay in shambles, and local food service workers are some of the most severely impacted.

One local chain is giving customers a chance to give directly to its workers by selling gift cards, with proceeds going directly to staff affected by the storms.

Taco Bus—which has 10 locations across the Bay area—is now selling $10 gift cards good for two tacos with a choice of protein, plus chips and salsa, and a medium fountain drink.

Customers can choose to redeem the meal for themselves or donate it to a first responder by putting a message in the “gift message” space of the order.

An owner of four of the Taco Bus franchises participating told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that they have about 30 employees across their stores. About half missed more than two days due to the storm, but the rest just missed a couple days of work and some none at all.

The gift cards are available via taco-ventures.square.site.

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This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2024.