Meals prepared, served by disaster relief volunteers near 100,000

Some 180 trained Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers are stirring, baking and packaging more than 30,000 meals a day at feeding units across Alabama.

With an estimated 65,000 homes and businesses still without electricity at press time, April 27 storm survivors — those with homes and those without — need a place to find a hot meal. And those hot meals neared 100,000 at press time.

Four Alabama Baptist feeding units were deployed immediately after deadly tornadoes ravaged the state: three associational units and the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions’ (SBOM) main unit.

Tuscaloosa Baptist Association deployed its unit to Tuscaloosa and set up at Belk Activity Center. The feeding unit worked until May 4, when the disaster relief feeding unit from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention began feeding at North River Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa. The Texas unit was still operating at press time.

Birmingham Baptist Association’s unit was at the Birmingham Fire Department’s Drills and Training West field, while Limestone Baptist Association’s unit is at Capshaw Baptist Church in Limestone County.

Charlotte Jeffreys, a member of Faith Baptist Church, Athens, and disaster relief volunteer since 1996, is heading up the 17-member feeding team in Capshaw.

This team has a different opportunity than others preparing meals for the American Red Cross to deliver — it is serving breakfast, lunch and dinner directly to 1,200 people. Its audience includes the local community, disaster relief chain saw teams and utility workers.

With items like chicken fajitas and strawberry shortcake on the May 4 menu, the team is feeding the community well, Jeffreys said, noting the fresh and frozen food it is using is coming from the community.

“The community has been so wonderful,” she said. “Many businesses and schools have donated their frozen foods to [the feeding unit] before they go bad (since the community does not have electricity).”

The SBOM’s unit is set up at Broadway Baptist Church, Rainsville.

The newest addition to the Alabama Baptist disaster relief family, the main unit is a 53-foot semitruck trailer that serves as a feeding/communications unit. It has the capacity for serving 20,000–25,000 meals daily. It is fully self-contained with ham radio, a computer bank with Internet connection, water purification, propane for food preparation and a diesel generator. Between disasters, the unit is stored in the SBOM’s parking lot. When deployed, it is driven by a disaster relief volunteer who is a commercial truck driver.

Larry Murphy, a member of Hillcrest Baptist Church, Enterprise, led the team in to set up the unit, and Charles McGhee, a member of Journey Church, Valley, was leading the team at press time. Volunteers from Broadway Baptist and the Rainsville community as well as Louisiana and Mississippi are working together to serve up to 3,000 meals a day. These meals are delivered throughout DeKalb County.

Other state conventions are sending feeding units as well.

At press time, the Florida Baptist Convention had units in Double Springs and Snead.

The South Carolina Baptist Convention’s unit was scheduled to be stationed at Mount Zion Baptist Church, Huntsville, until May 10. With the unit were 17 South Carolina volunteers and 24 Mount Zion Baptist members, cooking 5,400 meals a day. They served chicken and dumplings, ham, corn, peas, pears, cookies and tea.

The food at the Huntsville site was provided by the Red Cross, prepared by Baptist volunteers and then transported by Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) to Marshall, Madison, Jackson and Limestone counties.

Lercy Bourgue of Hillcrest Baptist Church, North Charleston, S.C., led the feeding team stationed in Huntsville. He made the trek to Alabama “to share the love of Christ with the people in need.”

While the feeding team volunteers were focused on preparing the food and didn’t have contact with the people receiving it, Bourgue said, “[The ERV drivers] have told us that people are very appreciative.”

Billie Raney, a disaster relief volunteer from New Market Baptist Church began serving during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She has served in many places around the United States since then, but “this time, it was home,” she said.

“The devastation (from the storm) just took my breath away,” Raney recalled. And she also could see the shock on the faces of those coming to the feeding unit for meals.

But amid the shock, volunteers like Raney keep serving. “This is just what I do,” she said. “I enjoy helping people.”