By Bill Carey
FireRescue1
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Inflation is raising grocery costs, affecting families and firefighters alike. Firefighters, who often pool their money for kitchen supplies, are finding ways to budget and manage rising expenses.
At Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Station 46, Ryan Travis serves as both a fire medic and the B-shift cook.
Travis helps to feed 10 firefighters, and six years in, it’s a job that normally wouldn’t be his, FOX13 Tampa Bay reported.
“I enjoy cooking. So I started doing it, and I guess I never stopped,” Travis said. “When I first started working for the fire department, it was the newest guy was the cook. So, once I started cooking it was terrible. The food was pretty bad. As newer guys came, the food was always bad. So, I just continued to cook, because I enjoyed it.”
When the firefighters start their shifts, they discuss their tasks for the day. The menu often depends on what is on sale, as they pay for the groceries out of their own pockets.
“Today, the lunch that we had, we had burgers. The meat was on sale for that and then most of the ingredients for the chicken marsala was on sale as well. So, that’s why we ended up doing that,” Travis said. “Every station, what we do is everyone puts in $20 and that’s the food bill for the day.”
Station 46 firefighters shop at a nearby grocery store, making their money stretch despite inflation.
“When I first started working here actually, we were spending about $15 each on food, each on food items,” Travis said. “Now it’s up to about $20.”
