Helping Hurricane Florence Survivors

Once again, Second Harvest joined with the local restaurant community to prepare and provide thousands of meals to victims of a natural disaster. Dozens of local restaurant staff joined with Second Harvest volunteers in our 8,500 square-foot Community Kitchen to help those impacted by Hurricane Florence.

Even while the flood waters were still rising in North Carolina, these restaurant staff members, normally competitors, joined together to cook red beans and rice, shrimp and butter beans, and many other recipes, according to Langlois owner and Chef Amy Sins.

“It’s amazing what the Second Harvest Community Kitchen and staff does after every disaster to make response events like this happen,” Sins said. “These restaurant volunteers worked a full shift cooking these meals before heading into their regular jobs.”

All the ingredients for the disaster meals were donated by local restaurants and members of the restaurant-supply community. The meals were then flash-frozen to be loaded on several flights out of New Orleans Lakefront Airport, heading to North Carolina. Local pilots and plane owners donated their time and fuel to help get these meals to Carolina residents and first responders.

This is the seventh major natural disaster Second Harvest has responded to in the last three years. As a disaster responder, our staff prepares year-round to respond to any emergency in South Louisiana. We also are very grateful to be able to help others across our country who have helped Louisiana so many times in the past.

If you’d like to support those impacted by Hurricane Florence, we’ve set up a fund to support our Feeding America food bank partners in the area impacted by the storm. Please click here for more information on how to help.