NO FKS Given: This new Myrtle Beach food truck’s name has deeper meaning than you’d think

For more than a decade, the zero-waste concept has been gaining steam in the food service industry. While by no means mainstream, running an eatery with an eye to eliminating single-use plastic and food waste is an ideal that many restaurateurs embrace.

A local man has set out to prove that the concept is also a worthy ideal for restaurants on wheels.

Culinary student and Gulf War veteran Joe Czapla is finalizing plans to debut his zero-waste food truck, NO FKS Given, at Tidal Creek Brewhouse at The Market Common, with the date to be announced on the truck’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/nofksgivenmb.

Czapla, also a retired police officer from Bayonne, New Jersey is in his fourth semester at Horry-Georgetown Technical College’s International Culinary Institute of Myrtle Beach [ICI]. He moved to the Grand Strand with his family five years ago.

He said he was introduced to the zero-waste concept at the school by chef instructor Bill Twaler. His understanding deepened when he was chosen to travel to New York City last year with a group that included Twaler and ICI’s executive director, Joe Bonaparte. While there, they prepared Thanksgiving dinner at the James Beard House, a renowned nonprofit committed to sustainability and driving policy change around food and food culture.

For three semesters, Czapla has appeared on HGTC’s President’s List, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. He is currently on track for the honor again this semester.

He has been working on NO FKS Given for six months.

“The truck was established in the area already. It was the Charleston Flats truck,” Czapla said. “I basically redid the kitchen and a bunch of other stuff to get it to where it is now.”

He will give no single-use plastic forks, knives, spoons or plastic water bottles. Period. Every other item is compostable.

He plans on providing fresh seasonal produce from local farmers. Selections may vary season to season.

Czapla is all about sustainability and is concerned that the average person throws out hundreds of pounds of food per year (about a pound a day, according to the USDA).

“Say I’m slicing onions for my burgers. Some people take the roots and peels and throw them right out. I’m going to use that for a different recipe, whether it’s to roast it and put it in a stock or make something else with it – so I get 100 percent utilization from every single thing I buy for my truck,” he said.

While the COVID-19 situation didn’t help matters when it came to getting the parts he needed in a timely manner, it gave him a chance to get organized in other areas – including COVID-19 certification training and more from the Palmetto Priority program as well as ServSafe manager training.

“We’re obligated to do the same as restaurants do, and DHEC is going to come in and hammer us if we need to be hammered,” he said. “I believe that food should be good and people that are preparing the food should be healthy.”

Czapla was also chosen for the for the soon-to-open kitchen manager position at Community Kitchen of Myrtle Beach after volunteering and later interning there through ICI. He and wife, Dawn, plan on donating a lunch there from the food truck on a monthly basis.

Community Kitchen executive director Sean A. Mazur said he couldn’t be happier that Czapla is joining the ranks there later this year.

“Joe is one of a kind,” he said. “I love everything about him. I love his passion. I love his commitment. I love his work ethic. I love his heart for the least among us. People like Joe don’t come around too often.”

Tidal Creek Brewhouse co-founder and president Dara Liberatore-Sawczuk said she first met Czapla at a one-day business class she presented at the culinary institute.

“He was definitely engaged and asked a lot of great, pertinent questions – and we kept in touch since then,” she said, adding that he also reached out to her for guidance when he was getting ready to launch his business. Soon after that, she offered to make NO FKS Given a regular on Tidal Creek’s food truck calendar.

The fact that NO FKS Given is to be zero-waste resonated with Liberatore-Sawczuk.

“I love that,” she said. “We also believe in that little circle of life, and all of our spent grain goes off to a local farmer. Pretty soon we will be using the cattle for our in-house specials here at Tidal Creek.”

Twaler said he is honored that Czapla confided in him about NO FKS Given from concept to finished product, and also that it was interesting to see how Czapla’s mindset changed over the course of his studies at the culinary institute.

“Watching his evolution, as he was introduced to more farm-fresh items and being just a super caring and loving person overall – in the kitchen and out of the kitchen – I think he expressed his love for food by embracing the zero-waste concept,” Twaler said.

As for NO FKS Given and the food truck movement in general, Twaler’s point of view as a chef is a positive one.

“The community needs to rally around not only the restaurant industry, but food trucks as well,” he said. “Food trucks are not there to hamper the industry, but to bolster it and make it better for Myrtle Beach and the surrounding area.”

For more information about NO FKS Given, visit www.facebook.com/nofksgivenmb.