PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Mercy Chefs is back at work in Texas after a devastating winter storm not long after providing disaster relief after a tornado in Alabama.
Starting Friday, the Portsmouth-based nonprofit will serve meals in Dallas and Fort Worth after the extreme winter weather that has left communities throughout Texas without power and water. They're also working to provide clean drinking water in other parts of the state that have been hit hard by the storm.
Mercy Chefs has the capacity to serve more than 10,000 meals a day while in Texas, and volunteers are preparing and distributing food from multiple locations.
The nonprofit will start by serving lunch on Friday, Feb. 19, from a large mobile kitchen based at Gateway Church North Fort Worth Campus. In the days to come, they will serve both lunch and dinner to the community.
Mercy Chefs also will be preparing meals from multiple kitchens in Dallas. The team will distribute meals from those kitchens out into the Dallas community in the coming days.
“This winter storm has affected so many people over such a widespread area in communities that simply aren’t prepared for this kind of weather – we’ve never seen anything like it,” said Gary LeBlanc, founder of Mercy Chefs. “We anticipate a great need, and we are responding with the ability to prepare thousands of meals each day to help those in crisis.”
Mercy Chefs has served more than 10 million meals since its founding in 2006, including seven million meals in response to the coronavirus pandemic across the country since March.
To support Mercy Chefs in its current relief efforts, click here.
