ATLANTA — As Tropical Storm Florence continues to slowly move over the Carolinas, there’s a group ready to quickly move in and offer help.
“Feeding would be our first response,” said Stewart Lang. He is the state director for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. For more than 50 years, they have swooped into storm - ravaged areas and offered hot meals through their mobile kitchens and eventually aid with cleanup as well.
“We would dispatch the kitchen, the mobile unit from the best location depending on where it’s going and what the need is.”
First though, the storm must pass through and the roads must be cleared for relief crews to hit the road.
Georgia is one of 42 state conventions within Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and prepared to deploy to areas in greatest need this time, that’s the Carolina coast.
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“The feeding all depends on what’s requested of us so if we’re at a shelter or a mass community area we have multiple feeding units in the state. Two of them can do over 10,000 meals per day,” said Lang.
Once crews restore power, people move back home and the group ends up serving those groups that don’t stop!
“We keep feeding the providers, the servers. Ministry. Public servants,” said Lang. Then the second angle of their ministry, the cleanup, can begin, but not without first making sure people are fed a hot meal.
Since 1967, Lang estimates they’ve served millions of meals. He said it takes 30 volunteers a day to prepare and serve 10,000 to fifteen 15,000 meals a day.