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Red Cross Delivers Thanksgiving to Hurricane Survivors
Written by
Dawn Stewart
, Special to Redcross.org
Wednesday, November 23, 2005 — NEW ORLEANS, La. – The sight of American Red Cross emergency response vehicles (ERVs) delivering meals remains a familiar scene in hurricane-ravaged communities throughout the Gulf Coast region and Thanksgiving day will be no different. Tens of thousands of hot meals will be served to residents, just as they have been since the hurricanes struck.
American Red Cross emergency response vehicles (ERVs) are loaded up daily with water, snacks and hot meals that are delivered to residents in Kenner, La., and other communities throughout Louisiana that have been devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
(Photo Credit: Thomas Jacobson/American Red Cross)
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“Thanksgiving day is really no different for the Red Cross than other days,” said Kevin Lentz, a Red Cross volunteer managing the kitchen based in Kenner, La. “The destruction is still here, the residents are still cleaning-up and the Red Cross will still be here. Disasters and recovery know no difference between a holiday and any other day – its aftermath is still here and the Red Cross is still here helping because it is needed right here, right now.”
Lentz, a hurricane survivor himself, lost his home and two businesses in Mississippi but has been in Louisiana as the site manager of the kitchen set up in Kenner, just outside New Orleans.
Tomorrow Red Cross disaster relief workers in Kenner and other relief sites, many far from their own homes and families this holiday, will deliver hot cooked Thanksgiving meals to thousands of southeastern Louisiana residents. Prepared by partners Southern Baptist Convention and delivered by the Red Cross, meals include sliced turkey and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, a vegetable and a dessert.
“Back home, I was going to make Thanksgiving dinner for eleven,” said Bonnie Lawrence, a first-time Red Cross volunteer from Lewisburg, Pa., and the Union County Chapter of the Red Cross. “But by coming here as a volunteer with the Red Cross, I’m going to feed around 800 people a Thanksgiving meal. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to help.”
Every day Red Cross ERVs deliver water, snacks and hot meals prepared by Red Cross partners, the Southern Baptist Convention, to communities affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Thanksgiving Day will no exception. Only the menu will change as the partners prepare and deliver Thanksgiving dinners with "all the trimmings" – including sliced turkey with gravy, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce and dessert – to area residents.
(Photo Credit: Thomas Jacobson/
American Red Cross)
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Hers is a sentiment shared by Red Cross relief workers throughout the region.
Lawrence and hundreds of others working at the Red Cross kitchen in Kenner expect to serve their one-millionth meal on Thursday, a local accomplishment and part of a larger milestone for the organization.
During the Katrina and Rita relief efforts, the Red Cross has served a record breaking 27 million meals, more than any other relief effort in the 125-year history of the organization. By comparison, this number of meals served is roughly equal to feeding nine percent of the U.S. population.
In fact, the number of meals served would be the same as taking every single worker and resident in the cities of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. to lunch on any given workday.
A primary contributor in achieving the meal milestone is the Red Cross fleet of emergency response vehicles, which have mobilized from Red Cross chapters in every state in the continental U.S. and Washington, D.C., delivering hot meals, supplies and other aid to help hurricane survivors recover.
Each crew of Red Cross relief workers aboard the ERVs, as well as those stationed at relief sites and mobilized in communities, have ensured hundreds of thousands of hurricane survivors are fed each day. They will be on the scene doing the same tomorrow, helping survivors, many who will tell you: “This Thanksgiving, I am just thankful to be alive.”
Dawn Stewart has been Disaster Reserve worker with the American Red Cross for more than five years. Her first volunteer experience with the Red Cross was responding to Hurricane Georges in 1998, and she has since assisted with more than 30 relief operations.
All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the Midwest ice storms, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org.
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