TBM serves more than 500,000 meals

Posted: 9/16/05

TBM serves more than 500,000 meals

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Texas Baptist Men emergency food service disaster relief teams have prepared more than 500,000 meals for victims of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

About 30 teams of Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers, including 10 feeding teams, are ministering across three states where evacuees remain. Primary sites for TBM work include Covington, Alexandria and Hammond, La.; Biloxi, Miss.; San Antonio and Houston.

Unlike many recent relief efforts in which Texas Baptist volunteers have prepared meals delivered by Red Cross workers, Baptist teams are getting a chance to serve the meals they have prepared in some locations. Line feeding encourages volunteers because they get to see the results of their work, said TBM Executive Director Leo Smith. They see smiles on people's faces and hear words of gratitude. They also get to share the gospel on occasion, he added.

After an initial period of assessing needs and ministry feasibility, TBM has units in places where they can serve for several weeks. Each team has enough supplies to prepare meals for at least four months, though volunteers may not be needed for that long. The number of meals requested has remained constant, but it likely will drop off as evacuees return to their homes or relocate into permanent housing.

The situation in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama will begin to change as people leave temporary shelters to try to piece their lives back together, Smith said. Organizations are trying to encourage people to begin the recovery as soon as possible.

“What they are trying to do is get the people out of the shelters and into a trailer building or temporary shelter, putting family units together,” he said. “We want to see that.”

As the situation changes, TBM will shift into the recovery process as Louisiana becomes safer to work in, Smith said. Chainsaw and clean-up teams will be more in demand. TBM already is building a list of volunteers who want to serve on these teams.

“When you go in with the feeding, that's the disaster mode,” Smith said. “Once people starting disbursing from the shelters, that's the recovery. That recovery mode could go on for months and months.”

Even as Texas Baptist Men teams serve victims of Hurricane Katrina in three states, the organization stands ready to minister in the wake of Hurricane Ophelia, which was threatening North Carolina at press time.

Three feeding teams currently working in Louisiana have been placed on standby to serve in North Carolina. The teams could relocate quickly and start preparing up to 80,000 meals a day.

The storm, barely strong enough to be classified as a hurricane, pushed North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley to encourage residents in low-lying areas to evacuate. At this point, forecasters believe Ophelia could lead to a tidal surge of up to 10 feet and drop as much as 15 inches of rain in places.