Wawa donates refrigerated truck to help New Jersey store bodies of coronavirus victims

Wawa has donated a 53-foot refrigerated truck to New Jersey to help relieve crowded morgues and funeral homes in Bergen County as the coronavirus claims hundreds of residents’ lives each day.

“I want to give a shout out to Wawa,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday. “They had heard about our need, with a heavy heart, for refrigerated trucks to help take the pressure off our morgues and funeral homes in protecting the bodies of those loved ones we have lost.”

“The fact that we have to prepare for the unthinkable is, one level, extraordinary but having corporate citizens like Wawa ready to step in to help is invaluable,” he said.

A Wawa spokesperson confirmed the donation of the truck and said the Delaware County-based food service chain “will not be receiving it back.” The spokesperson deferred additional comments to Murphy’s office, which could not be reached for comment.

The Garden State has 47,437 cases of coronavirus, the second highest in the country, as of Wednesday, and 1,504 residents have died.

Last week, FEMA said it would send 85 refrigerated trucks to New York City, the epicenter of U.S. coronavirus deaths, to relieve the city’s overwhelmed morgues and hospital storage spaces.