Bottled water, cambros (large, in this case red, plastic containers) filled with baked beans, pulled pork and mashed potatoes to feed 6,400. Volunteers from Red Cross, Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) disaster relief and Catoma Baptist Church, Montgomery, grabbed supplies and loaded them into Emergency Response Vehicles (ERV) to distribute to communities in need across Alabama.
That was the scene at Birmingham Kitchen #1.
The BBA feeding unit began preparing food, provided by the Red Cross, on April 29 for the feeding center located at Boutwell Auditorium in downtown Birmingham.
On day one, the unit prepared green beans and beef stew for 1,000 meals. By day two, the unit had prepared 3,200 meals for lunch and 3,200 meals for dinner for mass distribution centers and feeding centers across the state including Pleasant Grove, Pratt City (east and west), Hackleburg and Cullman, to name a few.
The trained disaster relief volunteers set up an outdoor kitchen at the Birmingham fire department’s Drills and Training West field to cook “as long as Red Cross said they needed food to serve,” said Becky Moore, a disaster relief volunteer for more than a decade and member of First Baptist Church, Pinson.
Red Cross volunteers came from Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, Florida, Colorado and Alabama. They were at the feeding unit April 30 to get their orders for delivering the food, as well as toiletries, baby food, juices and bottled water gathered by Catoma Baptist Church.
Catoma Baptist asked the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), “How can we help?”
Catoma member and trained disaster relief volunteer, Sharron Young said the church collected the supplies in Montgomery and then brought Catoma’s supply-filled trailer to the feeding unit. Young helped organize the distribution of the supplies into the ERV’s.
Everyone willingly did their part. Doris McCain, Red Cross volunteer from Dothan, has served at 31 disasters — “This one makes 32,” she said with a smile.
Bobbi Miller, Red Cross volunteer from Lake County, Fla., came to serve Alabama because she knew the state had helped Florida in the past.
“It’s only fair to give back,” Miller said.
Families came to serve and “give back” at the feeding unit.
Kelly Lee and her husband, Dennis, and son Matthew, members of Gardendale First Baptist Church, served as disaster relief volunteers April 30. Kelly Lee had a list of centers needing cans of banana pudding and as she called out, “Pleasant Grove needs 11 cans,” her family would lift the large cardboard boxes and place them in the corresponding stack.
All with smiles and hard-working hands, the 100-plus volunteers made their way from boiling pot of potatoes to cambro to ERV and back again to serve Alabama in their time of need.
Moore was pleased to lead the disaster relief team in providing “a warm meal and a cool drink” in the name of Jesus, she noted.
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