Bread company steps up to feed dozens of motorists stranded on Virginia highway

A Baltimore-based bakery came to the rescue Jan. 4 to help feed dozens of motorists who were stranded along a stretch of I-95 that had been shut down due to severe winter weather.

Thousands of drivers became stuck on a 50-mile stretch of I-95 in Northern Virginia on Jan. 3. By morning on Jan. 4, many were hungry and in desperate need of food.

Among those motorists were Casey Holihan Noe, and her husband, John. The couple was headed to North Carolina to visit family before John’s upcoming deployment to Germany.

After being stuck for nearly a full day with no access to food or water, Noe noticed that a Schmidt Baking Company truck was also stuck out on the road with them.

“We stared at it for hours. All night we stared at the truck, all morning we stared at the truck, and we just stared at these loaves of bread,” she said.

On a whim, they called the Schmidt baking customer service hotline. They didn’t think it would work, but less than 20 minutes later, they got a personal call from the owner of the company, who contacted the driver.

“He just told us about his company is founded on helping people, helping the homeless, helping people in need,” Noe said. “So, that was right up their alley when I called them, and he was so proud to be able to have helped.”

The driver opened the back of his truck, and the driver and the couple went car to car to pass out bread to stranded motorists. Noe says they passed out food to more than 50 cars.

“Oh my gosh, it was the best thing I’ve eaten in my entire life,” she said. “A potato roll, we ate an entire bag of potato rolls, which I’m not proud of. We were starving.”

By Kelly Broderick, WMAR.