Food truck powers Afton

AFTON - While Afton was left without power due to last Friday’s tornado damage for 21 hours, one local food truck arrived to help support the community.

During severe weather which moved across the state, two tornadoes touched down in Union County. At 7:30 p.m, due to damage to Afton’s electrical substation, power was shut off across the city.

ITC-Midwest had reported over a dozen damaged poles and equipment, with more severe damage reported as the power restoration was further delayed throughout Saturday.

When power restoration was delayed further to 5 p.m., one family business decided to help out their local community.

Reno & Woody’s is a food truck started a year ago by Cody and Desiree Callison, who are natives of Afton. The family was able to run their generator early in the power outage to feed for themselves and their neighbors, but after the extended delay, decided to start up the truck and head to the Afton square park from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“We decided, well, let’s go uptown,” said Cody Callsion. “People probably need a warm meal for lunch. That was our thought process behind that.”

The impromptu visit brought the community out as word-of-mouth spread through the city, bringing a steady flow of people to the business to buy some fresh food.

The business has been a staple of Afton business since its first launch, and continues to be a major part of the community.

On Wednesday, May 1, the business was invited down to East Union Schools by FCS teacher Tess Cochran as an example of a startup local business. The Callisons talked with business students on how they manage Reno & Woody’s and invited the younger kids to see how the food truck was run.

“We try to be of need to anybody, if they ask us to come do things like this, volunteer,” said Desiree Callison. “It’s kind of what we do.”