Grifton VFD serves up steak for the community

Volunteers fired up their grills on Sept. 7 for their third steak night fundraiser of the year, providing a dine-in steak house atmosphere for more than 50 guests and serving take-out for dozens more.

For $20 a plate, each guest had steak grilled to their liking, a salad, garlic bread, a baked potato with all the fixings and a drink. The entire fire department was on site, grilling the meat, expediting sides, waiting tables and rushing takeout orders.

Chief Justin Johnson said that they host the event every first Saturday of the last month in the quarter.

“The first steak night in March was pretty good, the last quarter was a little slow, but it’s picked right back up this quarter, so it’s great,” Johnson said.

All the proceeds help the department buy equipment, and Johnson said that fire equipment is not cheap.

“We are a tax-based fire district, and we only get so much money out of tax dollars, so every bit of money that we can raise helps us buy new equipment that we need to help people in need when we get called out for a fire call,” Johnson said.

Josh White is the second assistant chief and has been volunteering since 2002. He said that they have a great group of men and women who volunteer.

“We all volunteer our time, nobody gets paid, we leave all hours of the day, we respond to fires, car wrecks, and we help EMS quite a bit with lift assists and codes, just to help our community,” White said.

“We got a bunch of guys and a few girls that have good hearts come down here to help all they can, and to see the community come out here and support us on our steak nights is great.”

Johnson said the volunteers who help run the department do it out of the goodness of their hearts and that they’re taking time out of their lives for their community.

“We get turned out all hours of the night, they’re getting out of their beds, leaving their loved ones and walking away from a plate of food on the table to go help somebody in need, and they’re taking time out of their lives to make sure that the community is safe,” Johnson said.

White said that it means the world to them any time they get folks to support their fundraisers because operating a fire department is expensive.

“With all our gear just to suit one fireman, you’re looking at right around $6,000 to $8,000, so every little bit helps, and we greatly appreciate when the community comes and supports us,” White said.

The volunteers put in plenty of leg work to find the best prices for the food they serve on their steak nights, and because of inflation White said that they try to get the best quality at the lowest prices to serve their guests.

“We try to get our sides and trimmings from wholesale places, but we get all our steaks from the Food Pride right here in Grifton,” White said. “I can’t say enough about them, we are thankful to those guys at Food Pride because they really look out for us on the meat pricing there, and it’s full circle because we are circulating money back in the community that we serve.”

Grifton Town Commissioner Raymond Oakes said that it’s important for the local community to come out and support the GVFD because it gives them extra income to build on their program.

“I think it’s so good that we all have come out tonight, and it was a really good turnout,” Oakes said. “You never know when you’re going to need to call them, and you’re going to want them to come see you when you need help, so we should come out to support them.”

Johnson said that they have two more fundraisers this year and that they would love for the community to come out.

“We have our annual Fireman’s Day coming up on Oct. 12 where we’ll do our big pig pickin’ and we’ll grill eight pigs, serving barbecue, potatoes (and) green beans, and then we’ll have our next steak night Dec. 7,” Johnson said.