Jon Tofte
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I was granted time off from my online jobs to go to Western North Carolina to volunteer in post hurricane/flood relief there. I arrived Wednesday night and started early the next morning with Operation Barbecue Relief:
If you haven’t heard of it, OBR is a great organization that feeds thousands of people after disasters. They are currently deployed in several locations, including Hendersonville, NC south of Asheville.
My friends all expected that I would be standing over grills, checking food, and serving out helpings as people came by. That’s a church or other event barbecue. This was a food factory!
The bbq is prepared in huge smokers that have revolving sets of trays. There is little human interaction other than loading raw food and unloading the finished product.
We produced about 9000 meals a day. Almost all of it was packaged up in thermal containers to be delivered by the Red Cross and others such as the National Guard.
It was sometimes very hard work and long days, but a great group of dedicated, caring people to work with:
On Friday I got to serve food directly for lunch. Even that was done in a production line manner. We filled styrofoam trays with bbq and a vegetable side, tossed in a bun, and packaged it up in new Walmart shopping bags with plastic wear and some apple sauce all tied up to be given to people that came by:
The best part of this was encouraging people, some of whom had lost virtually everything.
OBR took lots of precautions to safely serve good bbq. And they treated and fed us well, but would you be surprised to hear that we ate virtually none of the bbq we produced: Pork, chicken, turkey, sausages by the barrels full? Some of the regulars said that after you cook it all day for days you don’t want to eat it!
I am staying with friends here, and the husband works at the Red Cross in Asheville. (It is essentially a blood bank operation, but the local office now has been swamped with national Red Cross emergency personnel.) We dropped by late this afternoon and look what they had in the break room
:
So I finally did get some of our handiwork!
I can highly recommend Operation Barbecue Relief as a place to serve as a volunteer and/or to support financially.
I started Saturday with volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse. We cleared out a massive amount of fallen tree limbs and debris from two yards. It was hard work, but an incredible group of volunteers from all over. The team leader and experienced volunteer I worked under were both wonderful, caring individuals. I will be working several more days with them.
Samaritan’s does not allow photos to be taken at private homes. Today (Sunday) was an off day, so my friends drove me around to see the shocking aftermath of the flooding caused by the hurricane. So here are just a few pictures to show why I came back to the place I lived for seven years. It was a small chance to give something back and try to bring a little encouragement to people who have lost so much:
The orange writing on the door of this destroyed truck show that it has been checked for bodies
.
Right now, the local organizations have been overwhelmed with physical donations. They generally don’t need more water, clothing, etc. But, they will need help for months, even years to come, as will the victims of other recent disasters. If you want to help, I can fully recommend both organizations to support:
operationbbqrelief.org
www.samaritanspurse.org
If you haven’t heard of it, OBR is a great organization that feeds thousands of people after disasters. They are currently deployed in several locations, including Hendersonville, NC south of Asheville.
My friends all expected that I would be standing over grills, checking food, and serving out helpings as people came by. That’s a church or other event barbecue. This was a food factory!
The bbq is prepared in huge smokers that have revolving sets of trays. There is little human interaction other than loading raw food and unloading the finished product.
We produced about 9000 meals a day. Almost all of it was packaged up in thermal containers to be delivered by the Red Cross and others such as the National Guard.
It was sometimes very hard work and long days, but a great group of dedicated, caring people to work with:
On Friday I got to serve food directly for lunch. Even that was done in a production line manner. We filled styrofoam trays with bbq and a vegetable side, tossed in a bun, and packaged it up in new Walmart shopping bags with plastic wear and some apple sauce all tied up to be given to people that came by:
The best part of this was encouraging people, some of whom had lost virtually everything.
OBR took lots of precautions to safely serve good bbq. And they treated and fed us well, but would you be surprised to hear that we ate virtually none of the bbq we produced: Pork, chicken, turkey, sausages by the barrels full? Some of the regulars said that after you cook it all day for days you don’t want to eat it!
I am staying with friends here, and the husband works at the Red Cross in Asheville. (It is essentially a blood bank operation, but the local office now has been swamped with national Red Cross emergency personnel.) We dropped by late this afternoon and look what they had in the break room
:So I finally did get some of our handiwork!
I can highly recommend Operation Barbecue Relief as a place to serve as a volunteer and/or to support financially.
I started Saturday with volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse. We cleared out a massive amount of fallen tree limbs and debris from two yards. It was hard work, but an incredible group of volunteers from all over. The team leader and experienced volunteer I worked under were both wonderful, caring individuals. I will be working several more days with them.
Samaritan’s does not allow photos to be taken at private homes. Today (Sunday) was an off day, so my friends drove me around to see the shocking aftermath of the flooding caused by the hurricane. So here are just a few pictures to show why I came back to the place I lived for seven years. It was a small chance to give something back and try to bring a little encouragement to people who have lost so much:
The orange writing on the door of this destroyed truck show that it has been checked for bodies
.Right now, the local organizations have been overwhelmed with physical donations. They generally don’t need more water, clothing, etc. But, they will need help for months, even years to come, as will the victims of other recent disasters. If you want to help, I can fully recommend both organizations to support:
Operation BBQ Relief - Healing power of BBQ in times of need
Operation BBQ Relief delivers the healing power of BBQ in times of need, feeding first responders and communities affected by natural disasters.
operationbbqrelief.org
Samaritan’s Purse Responds After Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Helene Recovery, Rebuild Continues in Mountain Communities [donation pc = 013622 fluff = 0] Volunteer
www.samaritanspurse.org
!
