Fox River Grove food truck company seeks community help to make repairs after fire

Operators of the Fox River Grove-based food truck company Girl’s Got Balls is reaching out to the community for help keeping their business alive after their food truck was damaged from a fire.

Owner Shauna Fetterman and her business partner Carrie Jones appeared on the Food Network show “The Great Food Truck Race” in 2022. The business, which launched in 2020, specializes in fried, hand-held foods like mac and cheese balls and caramel buns.

After the show, the business was busier than ever, and the food truck made appearances at local breweries, pop-ups and events like the McHenry Rise Up festival and the Fox River Grove July 4 fireworks. However, the truck sustained damage in September 2022 when a cracked valve leaked propane inside the trailer.

“The line cracked during transit, causing a fire,” she said. “No one got hurt, thankfully, but it could have been a lot worse than it was.”

Fetterman had to replace the fryers, which got her through the end of the season. She needs to upgrade the vent hood with a fire suppression system that costs at least $5,500, Fetterman said.

“That is our current main issue and we don’t have that,” she said. “Without having an Ansul [fire suppression] system, the fire marshal will not let us have another season.”

Fetterman set up a GoFundMe in hopes of raising enough money to fix the truck before springtime, when food truck season starts. The fundraiser has collected just over $500 as of Thursday.

“It was one of our last ideas of, ‘How else can we make this work?’ and ‘How else can we raise money in order to get us this vent hood system to be able to have another season?’” Fetterman said.

Girl’s Got Balls launched another fundraiser on Bonfire, where all proceeds from merchandise sales go directly to fund their truck repairs, Fetterman said. In the meantime, the two-woman team does catering for events to keep the business afloat.

One of Fetterman’s goals after her appearance on the Food Network show was to create a brick-and-mortar restaurant so people can enjoy her food year-round. That dream is still alive and she is also hoping to get another truck to create an “all-around business,” she said.

“This whole entire concept was my way of being able to give something to my kids to create a legacy for them, especially after their father passed away from COVID,” she said.

Fetterman and Jones plan on continuing to apply compete in the “The Food Truck Race” to give themselves another shot at winning. They were eliminated after the first episode when they experienced technical issues with the truck.

“It’s been a wild ride, that’s for sure,” Jones said.