Editor's note: This corrects the spelling of Jason Iehl's last name.
COSTA MESA — Few businesses have been able to capitalize on Twitter the way the gourmet food truck industry has — many reaching cult-like status with tens of thousands of followers.
Now all that viral media power will be used to feed Orange County's homeless as 20 local food trucks, with the help of multiple food bloggers, rev up their engines for a two-week "Drive Out Hunger" mobile food drive.
"There's a tight-knit community that gathers at the food trucks," said food blogger Kim Nelson. "We thought that it would be nice to give something back and coordinated with the trucks … if they could use the power of their followers to get out the message that we have a huge hunger problem right here in your backyard."
Nelson and her husband, Jason Iehl, editors of SaturdayNightFoodies.com, organized the drive with the goal of collecting 1,000 pounds of nonperishable food and other basic necessities to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank in Irvine.