Baking company helps those stranded on I-95
(NewsNation Now) — A baking company came to the rescue of dozens of hungry motorists who were stranded on I-95 in Virginia during a snowstorm that snarled traffic for hours.
Casey Holihan and John Noe were hungry and on their way from Maryland to North Carolina when the roads became impassable.
Holihan had a stroke of genius when she saw a bakery truck and decided to call the company for help.
Within 20 minutes, their prayers were answered when one of the owners of Schmidt Baking Company called the couple back and told them to hand the phone to the driver.
“We kind of called them on a whim,” Holihan said. “But the woman in the customer service line was just so helpful.”
The driver cracked open the cargo and began, with the help of others, passing out bread to more than 50 cars of stranded motorists.
“We just started grabbing loaves of bread and carrying it to all the cars that we could see and passing it out,” Holihan said. “People kept coming out asking us for food for their kids and for their animals. And it was really heartwarming to me to pass it off to them.”
Holihan said prior to that, they had been without food for 37 hours. She said a truck driver gave them some water, but by the time they saw the bakery truck, they were very hungry.
“We definitely appreciate [Schmidt Baking Company] reaching out. Like Casey said, we didn’t expect to hear back from them,” Noe said.
The pair said they eventually made it safely to North Carolina.
A spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation said Tuesday evening that there were no longer any motorists stranded on the now-closed portion of Interstate 95. All disabled vehicles have also been removed from the interstate.