Denny's

Denny's Mobile Relief Diner Heads to North Carolina in the Wake of Florence

Last year, Denny's worked out a way to support people after Hurricane Harvey in Houston and Hurricane Irma in South Florida. This year, they're bringing back an all-new, completely-customized Denny's Mobile Relief Diner to visit areas impacted by natural disasters, starting with those in the Carolinas affected by Hurricane Florence.

The 53-foot traveling kitchen is designed to serve free, freshly-cooked pancake breakfasts to local residents, first responders, volunteers, and others affected in the path of storms, wildfires, and other disasters.

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"At Denny's, our brand purpose is rooted in the fact that we love to feed people—and have ever since our company was founded in 1953," said John Dillon, chief marketing officer for Denny's. "While we deliver on that brand purpose every day inside of our restaurants, the Mobile Relief Diner allows us to do what we do best by going out into local communities to offer a hot and comforting meal during a time when they could really use it the most."

With the hurricanes last year, Denny's looked for the best way to serve the community, wanting to get something on the road quickly to help people. After seeing how much good they were able to do by feeding people, they went back to the drawing board to build something more permanent that the company could send anywhere it was needed, as it was needed.

"The initial concept of the Mobile Relief Diner was created to serve as a quick, but a temporary solution that we could get on the road in a timely manner," added Dillon. "Over the course of two weeks, we were able to serve over 14,000 meals and seeing the impact that we had in those communities made us realize that the Mobile Relief Diner is the perfect embodiment of our brand. After retiring our truck last fall, we immediately began planning on how to make a better—and permanent—version of the Mobile Relief Diner to help as many people as we can."

The Denny's Mobile Relief Diner is a fully-functional diner on wheels that was designed by the company to travel virtually anywhere in the United States during emergency situations to serve free, hot pancakes, along with bacon, coffee, and drinks. Denny's plans to work closely with local officials, disaster relief organizations, and local franchisees and Denny's store operators to identify the areas with a critical need.


The mobile kitchen got a recent test run in Northern California where it offered free pancakes and hot meals to several communities affected by the record-breaking wildfires. Right now, the mobile diner is headed to North Carolina (next door neighbor to the company's headquarters in Spartanburg, South Carolina); you can follow its current location on the Denny's Mobile Relief Diner Twitter feed.

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