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Faith and volunteers lifeline for storm victims
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| Pauline Slade (from right), Wayne Rhoden and Sue Rhoden, volunteers from the First Assembly of God church, unload boxes of General Mills cereal Thursday at the Richardson Community Center for tornado disaster victims. JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter |
Organizations rally to bring food, comfort to those trying to find their way after tornado.
By TONY BRITT
tbritt@lakecityreporter.com
Faith-based, volunteer and community organizations have been asked to play a huge and important role in Lake City’s tornado recovery effort.
During the past week, volunteers from the New Beginnings National Disaster Relief organization have exemplified what contributions a faith-based organization can make for disaster victims.
Phil Robinson, operations director for New Beginnings National Disaster Relief, said the organization has brought in more than 25,000 pounds of food for tornado survivors.
“That’s been box foods stuff, MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) in the first two days and drinks are included in that poundage,” he said, noting a semi brought additional box food items on Thursday.
The National Disaster Relief agency is affiliated with the Assembly of God in Lakeland.
“They are doing what they can on their part to keep us in materials and supplies to keep coming in,” Robinson said. “We’re the only relief agency that has been involved in this part of the response recovery scenario.”
Robinson said they are hoping to get canned-food contributions from the local community and provide the canned-goods to tornado victims.
Non-perishable food contributions can be taken to the Lake City First Assembly of God or call the church at 752-2195.
Sam Taylor is the pastor of the congregation at the Lake City First Assembly of God and volunteers from the church have been working as volunteers to distribute the food from National Disaster Relief.
Taylor said at least 25 members of the church’s congregation have volunteered their time to help with the food distribution.
“We’ll continue to work with Phil and his agency in trying to help in this time of need,” he said. “We’ve had others that have called and said they would be glad to assist us. That’s one thing that we’ve found in this situation... People are responding to the need and thank God because we don’t have that much assistance coming from other areas. So, if everybody would look after each other then the needs will be met.”
The National Disaster Relief organization arrived in Lake City hours after last week’s killer tornado and set-up adjacent to the Richardson Community Center and began helping tornado survivors. The organization’s work has allowed tornado survivors to have immediate access to food items.
“The difficulty at this stage in the game is all the major parties that are usually involved in a major response like this — this is not large enough for them to respond to,” Robinson said. “We are ‘filling in the gap’ and no incident is too large or too small for us to be involved with. With this being a small incident, it puts a lot more pressure on us to get the food in here.”
Local officials are expecting to utilize the services of additional faith-based organizations for debris clean-up, construction and other storm-related incidentals as part of the local recovery effort.
During the past week, volunteers from the New Beginnings National Disaster Relief organization have exemplified what contributions a faith-based organization can make for disaster victims.
Phil Robinson, operations director for New Beginnings National Disaster Relief, said the organization has brought in more than 25,000 pounds of food for tornado survivors.
“That’s been box foods stuff, MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) in the first two days and drinks are included in that poundage,” he said, noting a semi brought additional box food items on Thursday.
The National Disaster Relief agency is affiliated with the Assembly of God in Lakeland.
“They are doing what they can on their part to keep us in materials and supplies to keep coming in,” Robinson said. “We’re the only relief agency that has been involved in this part of the response recovery scenario.”
Robinson said they are hoping to get canned-food contributions from the local community and provide the canned-goods to tornado victims.
Non-perishable food contributions can be taken to the Lake City First Assembly of God or call the church at 752-2195.
Sam Taylor is the pastor of the congregation at the Lake City First Assembly of God and volunteers from the church have been working as volunteers to distribute the food from National Disaster Relief.
Taylor said at least 25 members of the church’s congregation have volunteered their time to help with the food distribution.
“We’ll continue to work with Phil and his agency in trying to help in this time of need,” he said. “We’ve had others that have called and said they would be glad to assist us. That’s one thing that we’ve found in this situation... People are responding to the need and thank God because we don’t have that much assistance coming from other areas. So, if everybody would look after each other then the needs will be met.”
The National Disaster Relief organization arrived in Lake City hours after last week’s killer tornado and set-up adjacent to the Richardson Community Center and began helping tornado survivors. The organization’s work has allowed tornado survivors to have immediate access to food items.
“The difficulty at this stage in the game is all the major parties that are usually involved in a major response like this — this is not large enough for them to respond to,” Robinson said. “We are ‘filling in the gap’ and no incident is too large or too small for us to be involved with. With this being a small incident, it puts a lot more pressure on us to get the food in here.”
Local officials are expecting to utilize the services of additional faith-based organizations for debris clean-up, construction and other storm-related incidentals as part of the local recovery effort.
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| Mouth-watering temptations |
