When I wrote last, I had been on deployment for one week in West Wego, Louisiana, helping at a kitchen during the Hurricane Gustav relief effort. The "kitchen" was actually a parking lot filled with five refrigerator trucks, six trucks filled with cans known as "the pantry", and countless small tents set up for the site manager, meal preparations and a small meeting room. It was a big operation!  I have to say that the next week went by just as quickly as the first.

As the days went on, the need for feeding began to change - most of the homes had their power restored, the grocery stores were re-opening and many clients had received assistance for food from the Red Cross and/or FEMA.  We began to shut down the kitchen and as the numbers continued to drop, we transitioned to a catering contract.  (Being good stewards of the donated dollar, it was much more cost effective to work with a caterer than to operate an entire mobile kitchen for just a few hundred meals).  Shortly after that transition, we packed up the kitchen and sent it on it's way to the next disaster.

Week 3 of my 21 day assignment took me to Houma, LA and another kitchen.  The Tennessee Convention of the Southern Baptists managed the food preparation and cooking at this kitchen (the Southern Baptists are one of the American Red Cross' partners in feeding). So I was assigned to an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV).  An ERV looks like an ambulance, but it's used to distribute hot meals, snacks and water to clients in the disaster area.  There were 15 -20 ERV's assigned to this kitchen and their routes included much of the Bayou.  Each day, our ERV had the same route and we delivered both lunch and dinner, so I saw many of our clients twice a day.  As the days went on we began to build a rapport with those we were feeding. As we served the meals, they would update us on their recovery process.  We high-fived and celebrated with them when they would share that their insurance money came through or keepsakes they thought were lost were salvaged.  We offered comforting words and mourned with them about lost pets and having to start over.  For many clients, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike were destructive reminders of last time - Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.    

One woman explained to me that she had lived in Louisiana all her life. She lost all of her possessions in Hurricane Katrina, but her family was safe.  They had evacuated for Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, but their home had been destroyed - again.  I told her I was sorry to hear she had lost everything for a second time.  She looked at me and shook her head.  She told me - I didn't lose everything - my family is OK - they are everything.  I lost my possessions.