United Way delivers meals to areas in need
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on October 13, 2016 10:00 AM
United Way is helping with hurricane relief efforts by getting food out to first responders stationed throughout the county.
"Part of United Way's desire to be a member of the community is finding out what the needs are in the community," said strategic initiative director Dustin Bannister.
Monday morning, Bannister went to the emergency operations center to find out what some of the needs might be.
"The most apparent need that came out was the first responders, those who are stationed around the county and around the city, were going to need food," he said. "That had become a problem because trying to get 200 people fed by just having one person on that task was a bit too much to handle."
Bannister and United Way's community engagement manager Catherine Lechot began to find local people who were willing to help.
"Catherine got with some of the restaurant that had pledged to help us out with the Taste of Wayne and they were willing to donate food and some of their time to make this happen," Bannister said.
"We had the food transferred over to a system where we could take it out and disburse it to the first responding stations. The first day was kind of hectic. I ended up having to go get the food and take the food out."
But then volunteers took over. The restaurants take the food to the emergency operations center, and volunteers take it from there to the first responders.
"We're not getting in the way over at the emergency operations center," Bannister said. "I've spent three hours-ish a day over there and whatever we can make happen, we're making happen."
"A lot of our Taste restaurants are donating food to the shelters, as well as the first responders," Mrs. Lechot said. "They would have been helping United Way by being at the Taste, but they are still committed to the community.
"And the outpouring of volunteers in any capacity has been amazing. We just need to keep the momentum going because this is going to be a marathon recovery."
Anyone wanting to help United Way with relief efforts should go to Facebook.com/unitedwayne.
"We're trying to keep that up to date with volunteer opportunities," Mrs. Lechot said. "Right now there are a lot of people who want to help, but we're limited in opportunities. We encourage people to check on Facebook and as needs become available, we will post them on there so they can get involved."
"We are working with several organizations that are going to need volunteers to respond in various ways once it's safe," Bannister said. "Right now, safety is a major concern because these waters are going to stay here at least the next couple of days."
He said meals will be taken to first responders for as long as needed.
"We want to make sure our people in Wayne County are looked after," Bannister said. "United Way knows that the community needs to come first and if it doesn't come first, then we're not doing our job."
Anyone who has a need should call 211 to be connected with a professional who can access a network of resources locally.