Coming Back Stronger

When disaster hits, we come together and become better

Twenty years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Second Harvest is stronger than ever.

When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Second Harvest’s New Orleans warehouse was without power. With nowhere else to go, staff set up operations in an abandoned Walmart in Baker, Louisiana. It became their workplace, their shelter, and their home.

“I slept in the layaway department,” remembers Tanya O’Reilly, now the children’s programs manager. “We had our little cots lined up, just blow-up mattresses. It was crazy.”

“There were babies … in there. Families,” says Lemel Jones, the impact coordinator in Lafayette. “We rigged up hoses in the bathroom for showers. We lived there, and we made it happen.”

Even as Hurricane Rita followed just weeks later, the work didn’t stop. “The community saw that we were not gonna give up,” Lemel says. “It was such a powerful time to be part of something where the whole world came together.

Paul Scelfo wasn’t at Second Harvest yet, but he remembers driving into New Orleans on the wrong side of I-10 with food and water for FEMA and the National Guard. “A Humvee in front of me, a Humvee behind me, and not a single other car on the road,” he says.

Now the chief regional officer in Lafayette, Paul sees how far we’ve come. “Today, from the Texas line to Mississippi, there’s always a Second Harvest warehouse within reach.”

What started in 1982 and was tested in 2005 continues stronger and more committed than ever, thanks to the generosity of donors like you.

Read: Brand New to the Bayou