Plea from the Distribution Center

We received an email last night from Bob Montgomery, a member of Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean Springs. He is the volunteer in charge of both foodservice for the volunteer work crews and the distribution center. I can't say it any better than he does, so I'll include part of his message:

The semi-trailer trucks have stopped arriving and the receipt of supplies has reduced to a trickle. We are experiencing daily shortages at the Distribution Center. Our volunteer workers are processing 150 to 200 families a day, six days a week. With the magnificent outpouring of donations from across America, Christus Victor Lutheran Disaster Response has been able to help close to one thousand families a week. We have been told to anticipate the demand for food and supplies from the Distribution Center to continue for several years.

Over 29,000 families, more than 25% of the Mississippi Coast's population, live in FEMA trailers. Ten thousand of the trailers are in Jackson County, where Christus Victor is located. As of a month ago, another third of our coast residents remain off the coast, as there is no place for them to live. Economic activity has stagnated, tax revenues are unpredictable, and unemployment is high. The recovery on the Mississippi gulf coast is going to take a long, long time.

He goes on to ask for 52 congregations to commit to providing a truckload of food for distribution, hoping that somehow he will find enough churches to provide a truck full of food each week for the next year. That is certainly an ambitious goal, but I believe it is possible with God's help. And help from folks like all of us.

It has been challenging for us to be back to 'normal' and know that many others are not. Receiving this plea for help reminds me of the helpless feeling I experienced many times when we ran out of some critical item at the distribution center. I also know how incredible it was to watch a supply of something suddenly appear: 250 blankets and quilts stuffed into a motor home from Indiana; a box of towels from a man who had received the wrong ones from an online retailer - they told him to keep them and so he brought them to us; groceries purchased overnight by volunteers who saw what we needed; a skid full of feminine hygiene supplies that had been hidden and forgotten under a tarp in the back corner of the warehouse. The list of miracles that we experienced could go on and on.

Even if you can't send a entire truckload of food, you can still be a part of those miracles for the Gulf Coast. Anything you can contribute will certainly help. If you want more information about the items needed, go to their website (www.christusvictordisasterresponse.org/current-needs.html) and look at the "Supply, Hygiene and Food Items Needs." You can also contact us and we can put you in touch with Bob. I know he would be delighted to hear from you!