Franklin County business rolls out bread for hurricane victims

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — When New York chef Andrew Zurica serves hamburgers this weekend to Florida's first-responders, volunteers and families displaced by Hurricane Irma, he will doing so with donated Martin's Famous Potato Rolls made in Franklin County, Pa.

It is one of several ways that Chambersburg's Martin's Famous Pastry Shoppe Inc. is responding to the recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida.

The business sent 18,000 packages of donated bread loaves and rolls to be distributed by Houston's First Baptist Church after Hurricane Harvey.

It also made changes to production shifts to accommodate meeting double- and triple-sized orders from Florida stores in advance of Hurricane Irma.

"We were just sad for the people," said Julie Martin, social-media manager and board member for the family-owned company.

Martin said during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the business learned it could more quickly address increased demand for bread than other providers.

She said the business monitors weather forecasts to try to anticipate demand during snowstorms and other inclement-weather events.

"Florida for us is a large market," she said. "We started getting bigger orders from our sales-and-distribution market down there."

Distributors offered thanks for being able to fill otherwise bare shelves with the Martin's products, she said.

Those orders came about a week after Martin's sent pallets of bread to Houston.

Two managers, Dustin Martin and Brian Ramer, took turns driving a tractor-trailer for 24 hours straight to deliver the bread.

The drivers noted watermarks exceeding 13 feet high from the storm damage in the Houston area.

Martin said the company has been in touch with Texas organizations to inquire as to whether additional bread needs to be donated and distributed.