When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, food trucks were “invaluable” for feeding the “clean-up crews and construction workers who couldn’t leave their sites to dine out at the few reopened restaurants,” according to The Atlantic. After Hurricane Sandy, food trucks served over 100,000 meals to hungry New Yorkers, even offering 11,000 free hot lunches in just one day.

In Atlanta, the homeless shelter City of Refuge runs a food truck to fund its services (the nonprofit cooks up 12,000 to 18,000 meals a month). Every meal sold at the People’s Food Truck provides enough money to feed up to three people at its shelter. The truck also provides first-hand culinary experience for those at the shelter, giving them the skills to enter the restaurant industry. Meanwhile, Finnegans beer operates a “reverse food truck” in Minnesota: People donate non-perishable food and money to this roaming charity drive.

Unfortunately, not all cities welcome charity on wheels. Earlier this year, police shut down a minister in Birmingham, Alabama for feeding the homeless: He didn’t have a permit for his food truck.