JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Staff at Trader Joe's in Kenner are being commended for their fast thinking after a transformer explosion Thursday morning left the store without power.
Rather than let perishable food go to waste, workers called the Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans to see if they could come grab any of the refrigerated or frozen products after the outage.
Before everything got too warm, the agency sent over four trucks to collect more than 10,000 pounds of perishable foods that would have otherwise gone to waste.
Together with food bank volunteers, store employees loaded the trucks to be brought to storage.
The store was not alone in the power outage. More than 10,000 residents were reportedly without power after a transformer explosion early Thursday morning.
Entergy Louisiana said crews were out all day restoring power to the area, but as of Thursday evening, hundreds were reportedly still without lights.