Hope is Found
When Hurricane Ian approached landfall, our entire team knew this could be a storm that would require an unprecedented response from Mercy Chefs. Sadly, it truly was a historic and devastating storm — one of the worst hurricanes ever to make landfall in our country’s history. Ian made a direct strike on a highly populated, coastal region of Florida with both tornado-force winds and deadly storm surge. What we saw there took our breath away.
We deployed three Mercy Chefs mobile kitchens, along with support vehicles and a large team of chefs and staff members. Within 24 hours of the storm’s landfall, we were serving hot, chef-prepared meals, made with love, and our team continued to provide thousands of meals a day for fifteen days. We set our single day-record for meals served, with 23,243 meals, as the need continued to increase during the first week of our response. During this time, Mercy Chefs served 204,338 meals to the folks in Lee County. Before the first phase of this deployment ended, we provided 216,000 meals through grocery giveaway for a grand total of 420,338 meals. The road to recovery will be long for this devastated community.
In just two weeks we served over 200,000 meals - averaging anywhere between 10,000-22,000 meals a day. The team was pushed to the limit, but we did not break.
We received a heart-wrenching cry for help on our Facebook page. The comment read, “My sister is blind in a hospital and she needs water.” We immediately connected to locate the hospital to assist her sister. Soon after coordinating a water bottle delivery, we learned that this medical facility and three other hospitals in Lee County all desperately needed support. Our team went straight to work and organized the delivery of six pallets of water along with 3,000 hot dinners across all four hospitals that same night.
The following day and days after, we delivered 6,400 hot meals to these medical facilities to assist them with both lunch and dinner for patients and staff. Because of two sisters who had faith, we were able to feed many more in their darkest hours.
When it seems like all is lost, hope is not.
Some of the greatest heroes we were honored to serve was the Gulf Search and Rescue team. The assistant director reached out asking if it’d be possible to get meals for their team who hadn’t eaten a hot meal in four days! Of course, our team was sure to feed this search and rescue team.
They said, “I can’t tell you the difference one hot meal makes. Not just as the much needed sustenance, but for morale. Our team was so happy just by seeing their Red Jeep arrive... and after eating, [they were] literally different people.”
We met one woman outside sorting through her grandmother’s things in Fort Myers Beach right before a garbage truck came to take the pile away. We watched helplessly as the truck scooped their memories away. Chef John T. was right there to hand her a meal and pray with her as she cried in his arms.
This is what we mean when we say, feeding body and soul. Every disaster deployment we are met not only with hungry people but hurting people too. When we hand them a meal, we always offer a hug, a listening ear to hear their pain, and an offer to pray with them. This is the heart of Mercy Chefs.
Hurricane Ian has marked us.
In the two weeks following the storm we served 204,338 hot meals and distributed an additional 216,000 through grocery distribution. We surpassed our previous record of serving 21,403 meals in one day two times in the same week! Our volunteers clocked approximately 3,388 volunteer hours — these are local volunteers and volunteers from across the country who joined our mission to feed body & soul.
Eastern Kentucky Flooding
The end of July 2022 brought the worst flooding Kentucky had ever seen, setting new records in the state since the 1950’s. When we see something this devastating in small, isolated communities, we have to do something. Our team immediately moved into action and arrived in Whitesburg, KY to quickly set up inside a local school cafeteria to serve our first meals to anyone we could find.
As a result of this flood, 38 people passed away. These are 38 mouths we’d never get to feed, but we did feed the ones who knew them. We learned quickly that this part of Eastern Kentucky is a small pocket of people where everyone knows everyone. It’s a place where neighbors are more than neighbors — they are family. When we arrived, this entire region was grieving unthinkable loss and still in shock.
Some residents refused to leave their homes that had been badly damaged or completely destroyed by floodwaters for fear of looters. They lost so much already that they felt compelled to protect what little they had left. So many stayed, often without safe shelter from the persistently ugly elements, and with no electricity, clean water, or food for families who have nowhere else to go. So we went to find them, and what we found in these precious people is a resiliency and fortitude like no other.
One woman came to our kitchen where we were serving meals and met one of our volunteer coordinators, Janette Alvarez. “She just cried on my shoulders asking for help,” recalls Janette. “This woman had been serving hot dogs to her community that had been flooded by the storms, and she said she was tired. She was weary. She asked if we could join forces with her. And I told her that’s what we’re here for! And we sent 300 meals with her to give to her community.” Watch this story on video below:
Another person we met who left a huge impact on our team was Diane. The need we found in McRoberts was immense so our team returned daily, going door-to-door and providing meals to those folks.
On the first visit there, we met Diane and her husband who have three special needs children. About six feet of water had flooded the first floor of their house, and it left their home filled with more mud than you could ever imagine. All the disruptions to their lives made it especially difficult for her special needs children, who rely on the “normal” routine of their home life.
One of our team members asked Diane what else we could bring her in addition to meals. Her answer floored us. “If you can just get me another mop,” Diane said. “My mop is starting to fall apart from the mud.”
Diane’s request for a mop puts everything in perspective. These towns were so badly damaged and people didn’t have time to worry about food & water when they were in the process of cleaning out their homes.
We were humbled and honored to serve lunch and dinner daily for flood victims, volunteers, and emergency workers in Eastern Kentucky for several weeks after the flood. There are no words to express the appreciation we saw on their faces as they received your kindness. There is a beautiful layer of hope—and even joy—that resurfaced as we handed them a hot Mercy Chefs meal made with love.
Jackson, MS Water Crisis
When a city of over 160,000 people lost access to clean water and ran out of bottled water, we were prepared to immediately respond to our neighbors in need. From our Storehouse in Alabama, we deployed sixteen pallets of bottled water and our mobile purification system. Thank you for helping us bring some much needed relief to these Mississippi communities. Your dedicated support allowed us to bring hope into a place of fear and uncertainty.
Puerto Rico Slammed by Hurricane Fiona
On September 20th, the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s landfall in Puerto Rico, Mercy Chefs responded to Hurricane Fiona which caused immense damage to people still in recovery from the last storm. When we arrived on the island, it was completely without power or running water. Within an hour of leaving the airport, we were plating hot meals for neighbors in need.
On the first night we arrived, our meal deliveries went late into the night on an island without power. Despite these logistical challenges, the joy continued to radiate from every person we met, which is such a testament to the people of Puerto Rico. Even in darkness, hope is able to shine in the form of a meal. Because of supporters like you, Mercy Chefs was one of the first relief agencies to arrive and begin helping people in need.
It’s one of our greatest joys to serve alongside our fellow Americans as they work together to rebuild their communities affected by disaster after disaster.
They teach us so much about joy being our strength, no matter the circumstances we face. If we do it together and we do it with joy, there’s no telling how many people we can touch with the warmth of a meal made with love.
Our Commitment to Ukraine
The Lord opened the door for Mercy Chefs to establish a warehouse on the border of Ukraine six months ago, and we are blessed with the necessary transportation system and an amazing network of churches and organizations inside Ukraine to facilitate distribution directly to families in need. Every week, Mercy Chefs delivers food and supplies across the Romanian border and deep into Ukraine.
One of our chefs, Jonathan White, has been manning the Mercy Chefs warehouse since the beginning of our deployment. He shared with us on our “Hey Buddy” Podcast,
“I get food from the northern border to the southern border and eastern border to the western border, and I’m proud of that. I’m really proud of the Ukrainian’s who have not given up. I’ve had some of them say ‘If you get me the food, I’ll get it to the people.’”
Millions of Ukrainians are still adrift within their own nation. At the same time, millions more Ukrainians are trying to return to whatever is left of their homes and livelihoods within the battle zones, despite the war raging on around them.
This is why we have committed to keeping Mercy Chefs engaged in this massive relief effort into 2023.
This commitment would not be possible without your dedication to these people in great need.
Mercy Moment
By: Ann LeBlanc, CoFounder & President of Mercy Chefs
Meet Diana, an 83 year old woman, who’s entire life got turned upside down because of Hurricane Ian. Living alone in her retirement community in Fort Myers, she’s starting to pick up the pieces. When the storm hit, Diana didn’t have time to evacuate her home. The first thing she did when water started rushing into her condo was save her favorite painting, a Diana original, pictured below.
We were contacted by Diana’s daughter, who currently lives in New Jersey. As soon as we heard about her situation, I brought over 100 hot meals to serve her and her neighbors a hot meal. The entire community she lives in couldn’t travel for food or water because their cars were totaled in the storm.
I went back to see her each day for the duration of our time in Southwest Florida. Her unwavering courage and faith that she will recover ministered to me.
After all these years responding to disaster, Diana is a person I will never forget.
Meet The Chef
Chef Christina Ta
Our call is not only to respond to disasters all over the world, but to the hungry people right in our own neighborhoods. The Portsmouth, VA Community Kitchen was established in 2019 at the Mercy Chefs Headquarters in Portsmouth, Virginia to help combat food insecurity in the Hampton Roads region. In just three years since our opening, we have:
- Served over 519,000 meals
- Had thousands of volunteers
- Working with more than 100 local partners
Chef Christina Ta began volunteering with Mercy Chefs in 2019 a few weeks after graduating from the Culinary Institute of Virginia. Later that year, she joined our team full-time. She is now at the helm of our Portsmouth Community Kitchen as Managing Chef, and she ensures our local outreach can continue with excellence even when our team is deployed to a disaster elsewhere.
If you’ve met Christina, you know that she is exuberant, motivated, and fully dedicated to serve her community in such an impactful way. The joy she finds in serving and loving others is palpable when she talks about the opportunity to provide for her neighbors. One of the things she takes great joy in is serving fresh fruit to local children who may not otherwise have access to produce.
Our Portsmouth, VA Community Kitchen has been diligently serving nutritious, chef-prepared meals to Horizons Hampton Roads summer program, Park Place School in Norfolk, The Center in Norfolk, Neighborhood, First Lutheran of Norfolk, and Berkley Christian Academy during recent months along with other local programs.
We are so grateful for Chef Christina and our culinary team. They can cook an amazing meal, but more importantly, they make it with love for the people who need it most.
Message From the Founder:
Chef Gary LeBlanc (Founder & CEO)
Because of your generous support over the last year in establishing our Storehouse in Tanner, Alabama, Mercy Chefs was well-prepared for this record-setting storm season. The Storehouse is perpetually maintained with travel-ready kitchen equipment and supplies that allow our field teams to deploy at a moment’s notice and begin serving meals immediately following a disaster.
This level of expediency is key to providing practical relief in the direct aftermath of any emergency, but it was particularly vital to our ability to reach isolated communities following Hurricane Ian’s violent landfall and lethal devastation of Southwest Florida. Florida state officials quickly secured our signature services as a primary feeder for this disaster, and our undaunted field team rose to this challenge with both skill and grace.
Mercy Chefs provided tangible relief in the form of over 200,000 hot meals for victims, volunteers, and emergency personnel. Your steadfast support made this mission of mercy possible, and the astonished recipients of these delicious, nutritious meals are forever grateful for your compassion.
The physical devastation of a natural disaster is shocking to see, but the emotional impact is even more distressing to witness. The harrowing stories I hear from disaster victims during every deployment will stay with me forever. And yet, this is why I do what I do. This is why we serve.
When it feels like all hope is lost, Mercy Chefs is there to provide comfort for those who are enduring their darkest hours.
We are uniquely prepared to shine the light of love and share the joy of the Lord, even as we are surrounded by tragedy and despair. A restorative hot meal creates a moment of normalcy in the midst of chaos and makes room for hope to return in the hearts of victims who have lost so much in such a short time.
This holiday season, we’ll be returning to areas in desperate need of a reminder of that hope.
With your faithful support, Mercy Chefs stands fast as a beacon of hope for those who have lost sight of a brighter tomorrow. Thank you for being a part of what we do.
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feeding body and soul
Credits:
Mercy Chefs