Photographer: Daniel Cima/American Red Cross.
More Hurricane Katrina images are available in BBSNews Photos.
American Red Cross and Its Partners Serving Up Relief at a Record Pace
American Red Cross via BBSNews - WASHINGTON, 2005-10-05 -- “We’ve served 20 million meals. That’s the same as feeding every man, woman and child in the state of New York,” Armond Mascelli, vice president of domestic response operations for the American Red Cross, announced today.
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| Red Cross Comfort Kits being delivered at Astrodome. Photographer: Daniel Cima/American Red Cross. |
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For the image shown above in a larger size, see Comfort Kits.
More Hurricane Katrina images are available in BBSNews Photos. |
On Tuesday, the Red Cross, in partnership with the Southern Baptist Convention and others, topped the milestone of 20 million meals served to survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In less than six weeks since Hurricane Katrina first blasted onto U.S. shores, more meals have been served than in any other disaster relief operation in Red Cross history.
During the same six weeks, Red Cross workers handed out more than 13.2 million snacks.
Providing food to victims of disaster – whether a house fire in your neighborhood or a hurricane which impacts 90,000 square miles – is one of the essential pillars of Red Cross relief. In responding to Hurricane Katrina, the Red Cross dispatched mobile field kitchens to the impacted areas, where they augmented local meal preparation. Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) were distributed where devastated infrastructure made it impossible to prepare meals.
“This disaster demanded more of us than ever before. We doubled our meal production capacity and cut our time to set up feeding operations in half,” Mascelli said.
“In order to accomplish this, we’ve worked with our vendors to move more than 2,500 tractor trailer loads of foodstuffs from 16 states,” said John Kappert, acting Red Cross disaster logistics manager. “In the face of conditions on the ground, this was a huge challenge accomplished by phenomenal volunteers.”
On Sept. 3, the fifth day after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, the Red Cross handed out 995,969 meals – nearly four times the previous record of 276,000 meals in one day during the aftermath of last year’s hurricanes.
A meal is defined as a combination of an entrée, side dish and dessert, usually served with a beverage. A snack is considered a single unit piece of food, often pre-packaged, that is not a meal or served as part of a meal. Examples include a piece of fruit, an individual package of cookies, a bottle of water or a bag of chips.
The Red Cross has a longstanding relationship with the Southern Baptists, who sent preparation teams with complete field kitchens from around the country to the Gulf Coast states. To date, the Southern Baptists have prepared 5.8 million hot, nutritious meals with 65,000 volunteer days of donated manpower.
Mascelli credited the Southern Baptists for their food preparation expertise, as well as federal, state and local authorities who helped get supplies to areas where meals were needed. “The needs were enormous and this milestone of relief is a credit to the cooperative spirit of America,” he said.
The Red Cross continues feeding operations in areas where returning residents have few other options to buy, store or prepare their own food because utilities have not been restored and stores have not reopened. Meals are available at many shelters and feeding sites and from Red Cross response vehicles that travel through impacted areas.
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 recents disasters and thousands of other disasters across the country each year 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 those in need. Call 1-800-HELP NOW 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. 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.
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