Disaster Relief
About Us
Feed Thy Neighbor and Hurricane Ian
As soon as the storm passed, we hit the kitchen with no electricity. We had one gas stove , but we got 4 course hot meals out. The Feed Thy Neighbor crew went out on the road that first night and delivered meals until 11:30. Went home, washed, napped and then back into the kitchen. The first night I got stuck in wet clay up to my calf’s and could not get out. Josh and Sandy pulled me out of the mud, and we went on. By the second day the emergency management people heard about us and started redirecting all bulk meals they received for distribution. Of course, we needed a bigger truck with a hydraulic tailgate, so we rented one. That truck alone cost us $5,000 for the month. We are still running it. Our distribution numbers went up to 3,000 - 4,000 meals a day. Now that the Red Cross arrives ten days after the storm ended, we got some rest, and returned to our normal schedule of 600-800 meals per day. I know it sounds crazy, but once you start adding up the cost of food, packaging material, labor, fuel, repairs and all my accountant tells me we have spent, it added up to almost $75,000 on this storm. All of our reserves are gone, but there are a lot of little happy faces out there eating their cupcakes and enjoying the day, because we believe there is something more important in this world than money. I guess this all seems crazy, but we are broke, and happy, and our reserves are gone. Currently, we are planning a Halloween on Wheels, providing kids with special Halloween meals and lots of candy. No matter how tough an area they live in, these kids know Feed Thy Neighbor will be there, all dressed up in costumes. Our people work all holidays. I just hope that we can give these very deserved children a quality Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all the trimmings, and a great Christmas dinner, too, and that Santa Claus will be driving another truck loaded with toys. Last year, we gave out 400 beautiful new toys. This year, we hope to do better.
Loading at the Collier County Emergency Management Garage at night and in the yard during the day. We had all size trucks rented.
FTN helped all those in need with food and clothes