On the afternoon of Tuesday, January 7, 2025, I discovered two bearded white men holding a giveaway in the Amtrak maintenance-of-way, between MwC and KGM. They were giving away warm, extra-long (8 inch), all-beef hot dogs on premium 6.5-inch long buns, with mustard and ketchup packets, inside of long, waxed, brown paper bags. They also offered salty snacks (e.g. Frito-Lay brand chips, original Cheez-It crackers), sweet snacks (e.g. Nutter Butter Bites), and bottled water.
In subsequent weeks, they kept coming back on Tuesdays at 1 p.m., except for one week when they skipped Tuesday and came on Wednesday at 1 p.m. I believe I overheard that one of the volunteers is named Phil or Bill. I think I also overheard that he's involved with little league baseball, which may explain the hot dogs. They serve out of the back of a white GMC Yukon XL SUV. In recent weeks, they've added what appears to be a GoPro or similar video camera on a tripod. So, it appears that they are now video recording their giveaways.
On Tuesday, April 8, they served warm pepperoni and cheese pizza from Costco. Some weeks, they also give away a variety of donated clothing and/or hygiene items. They apparently have a bunch of new t-shirts that they plan to give away this summer.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, April 22, they "upgraded" their video recording to *TWO* GoPro-like cameras on tripods, one on both sides of the serving table. They served large slices of Costco pepperoni pizza on disposable plates that stated "RECYCLABLE", which I interpret to mean industrially compostable. They also offered a grab-box of manufactured sweet snacks (e.g. Rice Krispy treats, Nabisco Lorna Doone shortbread cookies) and bottled water. In addition, they provided individually customized hygiene kits inside of plain, solid color, polyester? drawstring backpacks, which included sample sizes of Degree deodorant, co-branded Crest Scope mouthwash, and Bergman Kelly 2-in-1 shampoo & conditioner.
