How a Beastie Boy's Food Truck Helped the Rockaways Rebuild After Hurricane Sandy Mike Diamond (aka the Beastie Boys' Mike D), celebrity chef Sam Talbot and designer/hotelier Robert McKinley address the continuing needs of the economically devastated New York beach community by transitioning their Rockaway Plate Lunch Truck from a relief effort into a sustainable business and mentoring program.

For the trio behind Rockaway Plate Lunch Truck--Mike Diamond (aka the Beastie Boys' Mike D), celebrity chef Sam Talbot and designer/hotelier Robert McKinley--feeding locals left decimated by Superstorm Sandy was the easy part. The bigger challenge came in addressing the continuing needs of the economically devastated New York beach community by transitioning the food truck from a relief effort into a sustainable business and mentoring program.

Sandy left thousands of residents of Rockaway Beach in Queens--as well as grocery stores and restaurants--without electricity. Just days after the storm skipped town last fall, the traveling truck began serving up to 500 lunches per day of chicken, beans and rice, cooked by staff at some of New York City's top restaurants, including The Spotted Pig, The Breslin Bar & Dining Room and The Fat Radish. "The first time we came out here," says Talbot (who found fame on Bravo TV's Top Chef), "we did the best we could to make it not so dreadful and dismal. We brought a speaker, played some hip-hop, funk. Every day it got a little better."

What became clear immediately was that the need extended far beyond feeding the masses. "One of the main things that has not returned is prosperity," Diamond says. Rockaway Beach, he adds, "wasn't a thriving economy before Sandy, and it was really set back post-Sandy. You have all these businesses that won't reopen."