Positioned to Help

Positioned to help. That’s what we want to be. Collaborative partnerships make it possible for us to bring our nutritious food to the table in a time of crisis. CitiIMPACT brings all the various pieces together and executes the outreach efforts in partnership with churches at “ground zero.” This kind of collaboration is absolutely crucial for timely and effective relief efforts to take place—efforts done in Jesus’ Name.

Our partnership with CitiIMPACT goes back a few years now, helping in the aftermath of historic flooding in South Carolina in 2015 and in North Carolina after Hurricane Matthew last year. We have now done the same with them in 2017 after Harvey brought an unprecedented deluge to Houston and southeastern Texas.

Felicia Young, an amazing “multi-tasker” and the Relief Coordinator at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas, shared about the situation in her town:

It’s been an emotional process. We’ve had over a hundred volunteers helping us. The volunteers’ homes were under water, but they chose to help others worse off than themselves.

The sentiment was shared by others that the smaller towns were being overlooked because of the focus on the nation’s fourth largest city—Houston. It will be weeks before flood waters even leave many homes and neighborhoods in these outlying locations. Many also still do not have access to clean water at this writing.

The Lord blessed Feed the Hunger with a full shipment (32 pallets, or 1,152 boxes) of Beans and Rice and Chicken Pasta packets ready to go thanks to friends like you who had volunteered at recent Packathons. Along with a good friend and supporter of Feed the Hunger, Scott Hildebrand, I headed to Texas to see our food being used and to help as much as possible as the Lord led us each day, hour, and minute.

The food arrived in hard-hit Beaumont and was also given out via distribution points in Houston, Rosenberg, and Baytown. This included handouts of the packets as well as being prepared as a hot meal. One location added sausage to the Beans and Rice meal. Yum! And in a matter days (four, to be exact), nearly all the food had been shared with those hardest hit.

Felicia continued:

We had volunteers with trucks who delivered to areas that were hard to reach. The people came out crying. They hadn’t had a meal or access to water in a couple of days. They asked how we knew to go to them . . . God! That’s how. I thank you and your organization again for the donations.

At another location in Rosenberg, Pastor Jimn Kyles of The Church shared with us:

One of the many things our volunteers have been able to do is put together a general care package for families in need. In these care packages, we have included your donations of the meal packets, along with snacks and paper goods, nonperishables, toiletries, hygiene products, paper goods, etc. If families come in with something specific, we will go ahead and make it for them on the spot and add in meal packets. We are so appreciative of your generosity and thank you for helping us reach out to those in need.

As far as Feed the Hunger’s impact on the ground, the following aid and relief activities were funded and distributed:

• 262,000 servings of nutritious food
• 100 cleaning supply kits (9 items each)
• 840 pounds (120 gallons) of bleach
• 300 masks for victims as they clean out their homes

It was a blessing for us to spend time with amazing volunteers who were themselves flood victims, but who selflessly put others first. We got to meet so many other individuals and families who came to receive food and water. We were able to briefly love on them, bless them verbally, and give them desperately needed items.

Natural disasters are no respecter of persons. We saw people from all walks of life equally affected by this hurricane. Jesus loves them all, and so it was a blessing to represent Him to those with whom we connected. Being His hands and feet is why we are on this earth and why we were in Texas, thanks to your partnership.

Joseph Williams | CEO