A South Carolina towing company recently turned a big rig accident into an opportunity to help others after the company was instructed to get rid of the food damaged in the accident however they saw fit.

The accident happened on Thursday, November 16th in South Carolina as the rig was on its way to a Food Lion distribution center.

According to T & D, no one was injured in the rollover accident, but the boxes of frozen vegetables were slightly damaged. Because of the slight damage, Food Lion decided to leave the food to Carolina Towing, the company that worked to right the big rig, to dispose of ‘as they saw fit.’

Lauren Coleman, owner of Carolina Towing in Cameron, South Carolina, knew it would be a waste just to throw out the food, especially so close to a holiday weekend.

“I could not take all that food to the dump knowing there are families out there who need food, especially during Thanksgiving time,” Coleman said.

Carolina Towing then rented out a freezer for the weekend while several of their drivers volunteered to make deliveries to charities and families in need across the state.

When Monday rolled around, they began distributing the frozen vegetables to churches and soup kitchens in the area and pretty soon, word got out about the free food. Hundreds of cars began lining up outside of Carolina towing on Highway 33, waiting for their own box of corn, green beans, peas, Lima beans, mixed vegetables and carrots.

“We had over 300 cars come through here… We got in a truck and handed out boxes of vegetables,” Coleman said.

“We had this truck full of boxes from the front to the back,” Coleman said, and within a matter of days, the food was all gone.

Despite the unusual circumstances, this wasn’t the first time Carolina Towing has taken a tragedy and turned it into a charity
“We had a spaghetti sauce truck flip over in the past,” Coleman said.

“That went to Harvest Hope and churches around here.”