Bronco Nation Nutrition damaged by Temple tornado, but still offers free drinks to first responders, lineman

TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX) - Bronco Nation Nutrition is one of several businesses in the Westfield Marketplace shopping center left with significant damage.

A total of 150 contractors are now working around the clock to repair all of the shops as soon as possible.

Despite the tornado bringing new challenges to Bronco Nation Nutrition, it’s still paying it forward to first responders.

Bronco Nation Nutrition lost equipment, supplies and their entire bar in the tornado.

“Inside we are going to have to rebuild the bar,” owner Aaron Reynolds said. “We may have to redo flooring and even fix some wall damage with the water being in there.”

That’s about $15,000 to $25,000 in damages and it’ll be at least two months before Reynolds and his staff can move back in.

”The biggest damage that we got is our AC unit was ripped off our roof, which caused a giant hole and led to water getting inside and ruining everything inside the store,” Reynolds said.

Touched by his story, Tommie Ferguson, the owner of Nutrition 2305, offered to share her storefront with Reynolds.

”When everything happened she reached out to me, she said I was more than able to bring my old inventory and new inventory here,” Reynolds said.

At his temporary shop off of West Adams Avenue, Reynolds is putting 30% of all proceeds towards a fund to give free protein shakes, energy drinks and teas to first responders and lineman.

”When I saw the damage on West Adams as bad as it was, I did additionally realize our damage wasn’t as bad as other people’s,” Reynolds said.

Before the move he was accepting donations through his CashApp and Venmo and had already passed out drinks to people on the ground.

”My priority was making sure that they were fueled and energized and that they also feel the same support that some of these other people are feeling,” Reynolds said.

As he and other business owners work to rebuild, Reynolds remains hopeful and wants to provide hope to others in the community as well.

”For me priority one is getting in my new shop and staying active in the community and still fueling them with good energy and good nutrition,” Reynolds said. “As we progress through we’ll be back open at some point.”

There are still funds leftover for first responders and lineman to get free drinks. Anyone interested can visit any of the following locations during normal business hours:

• Nutrition 2305 located at 4311 West Adams Avenue
• Temple Nutrition & Energy located at 3010 South 31st Street
• The Healthy Place located at 1407 South 31st Street