Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
She Fed Thousands During the Hill Country Floods. A Stranger More Than an Hour Away Was Watching
KERRVILLE, Texas — When catastrophic flooding tore through the Texas Hill Country on July 4, 2025, first responders, volunteers and search teams poured into the disaster zone.
But all of those people needed something remarkably ordinary while doing extraordinary work.
They needed to eat.
That's where Shonna Foster came in.
Foster, founder of Shim's Be Blessed Catering in Kerrville, says she woke up that morning like so many others, trying to understand the magnitude of what had happened.
"We woke up that morning. Of course, you don't really know what's going on, and once we figured it out, we went to Home Depot, and we fed the first responders there," Foster said.
But she didn't stop after one meal.
Foster and her volunteers kept cooking.
Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner.
They fed first responders, volunteers, families and search teams working through the devastation. Foster says the effort continued for weeks, producing thousands of meals for people experiencing some of the most difficult days of their lives.
And then, one year later, flooding struck the Hill Country again.
Foster went back to work.
"I still can't talk about it without tearing up," she said. "But just it feels good to help. But it feels good seeing how the whole community came together and put this together."
Foster's efforts were reaching much farther than she realized.
More than an hour away, Joe Gest had been watching what she was doing online.
The two had never met.
Gest wasn't a relative, friend or longtime customer. He was simply a stranger who saw someone continually giving to other people without asking for anything in return.
"She just unrelenting," Gest said. "Just to step up and keep on giving and giving and giving, and not asking for nothing back."
Gest first tried to get Foster recognized after the 2025 flooding.
It didn't happen.
But when another round of flooding hit a year later and Foster once again began feeding people, Gest tried again.
"I said, let's renominate her," Gest said, "because there's more people in this world need to be like her."
This time, FOX SA's Cash for Kindness came calling.
There was one problem.
How do you arrange a surprise between two people who have never met?
Foster happened to be trying to sell her food truck, so Gest posed as a potential buyer.
She believed she was meeting someone interested in buying it.
He had no intention of doing that.
When Foster arrived, she instead found FOX SA's Ryan Wolf waiting with Gest.
"I'm not Joe Gest," Wolf told her. "I'm Ryan Wolf from FOX SA."
Foster soon learned the real reason Gest wanted to meet her.
FOX SA and DJC Law presented Foster with a $1,000 Cash for Kindness award recognizing what she and her volunteers had done for the Hill Country community.
"A little overwhelmed and grateful, blessed," Foster said. "Thank you so much."
But the surprise wasn't over.
Gest had kept something from Foster — and from Wolf.
"What I wanted to do was match his donation with another $1,000 because you guys deserve it," Gest told her.
That brought Foster's total surprise to $2,000.
For Gest, it was the culmination of more than a year of trying to recognize a woman he'd never met.
For Foster, the attention remains on everyone else.
"Everybody can be kind," she said. "It takes a little effort to be kind. Not everybody can do a whole lot, but any little thing, people appreciate it so much, and it means so much to people. Just, just be kind."
When the floodwaters came, Foster served her community.
When they came back, she did it again.
After thousands of meals given to people she may never see again, two strangers she'd never met finally got the chance to serve her.
Click here to nominate someone you know for the $1,000 Cash for Kindness award
_______________
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She Fed Thousands During the Hill Country Floods. A Stranger More Than an Hour Away Was Watching
KERRVILLE, Texas — When catastrophic flooding tore through the Texas Hill Country on July 4, 2025, first responders, volunteers and search teams poured into the disaster zone.
But all of those people needed something remarkably ordinary while doing extraordinary work.
They needed to eat.
That's where Shonna Foster came in.
Foster, founder of Shim's Be Blessed Catering in Kerrville, says she woke up that morning like so many others, trying to understand the magnitude of what had happened.
"We woke up that morning. Of course, you don't really know what's going on, and once we figured it out, we went to Home Depot, and we fed the first responders there," Foster said.
But she didn't stop after one meal.
Foster and her volunteers kept cooking.
Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner.
They fed first responders, volunteers, families and search teams working through the devastation. Foster says the effort continued for weeks, producing thousands of meals for people experiencing some of the most difficult days of their lives.
And then, one year later, flooding struck the Hill Country again.
Foster went back to work.
"I still can't talk about it without tearing up," she said. "But just it feels good to help. But it feels good seeing how the whole community came together and put this together."
Foster's efforts were reaching much farther than she realized.
More than an hour away, Joe Gest had been watching what she was doing online.
The two had never met.
Gest wasn't a relative, friend or longtime customer. He was simply a stranger who saw someone continually giving to other people without asking for anything in return.
"She just unrelenting," Gest said. "Just to step up and keep on giving and giving and giving, and not asking for nothing back."
Gest first tried to get Foster recognized after the 2025 flooding.
It didn't happen.
But when another round of flooding hit a year later and Foster once again began feeding people, Gest tried again.
"I said, let's renominate her," Gest said, "because there's more people in this world need to be like her."
This time, FOX SA's Cash for Kindness came calling.
There was one problem.
How do you arrange a surprise between two people who have never met?
Foster happened to be trying to sell her food truck, so Gest posed as a potential buyer.
She believed she was meeting someone interested in buying it.
He had no intention of doing that.
When Foster arrived, she instead found FOX SA's Ryan Wolf waiting with Gest.
"I'm not Joe Gest," Wolf told her. "I'm Ryan Wolf from FOX SA."
Foster soon learned the real reason Gest wanted to meet her.
FOX SA and DJC Law presented Foster with a $1,000 Cash for Kindness award recognizing what she and her volunteers had done for the Hill Country community.
"A little overwhelmed and grateful, blessed," Foster said. "Thank you so much."
But the surprise wasn't over.
Gest had kept something from Foster — and from Wolf.
"What I wanted to do was match his donation with another $1,000 because you guys deserve it," Gest told her.
That brought Foster's total surprise to $2,000.
For Gest, it was the culmination of more than a year of trying to recognize a woman he'd never met.
For Foster, the attention remains on everyone else.
"Everybody can be kind," she said. "It takes a little effort to be kind. Not everybody can do a whole lot, but any little thing, people appreciate it so much, and it means so much to people. Just, just be kind."
When the floodwaters came, Foster served her community.
When they came back, she did it again.
After thousands of meals given to people she may never see again, two strangers she'd never met finally got the chance to serve her.
Click here to nominate someone you know for the $1,000 Cash for Kindness award
_______________
Stay up to date with our social media:
KABB on Instagram: instagram.com
KABB on Facebook: facebook.com/foxsanantonio
KABB on Twitter: twitter.com/kabbfox29
Subscribe to KABB on YouTube: youtube.com/c/KABBFOXSanAntonio
For more information, visit foxsanantonio.com
Have a news tip? Send it directly to us:
Email us: NewsDesk@news4sanantonio.com
Call the Newsroom: 210.442-6397
KABB is a TX based station and an NBC Television affiliate owned and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country today.
#KABB #KABBFOX29 #NEWS4SanAntonio #KABB29 #SanAntonio
