Volunteers pack thousands of meals for Dundee tornado victims
Valerie Olander / The Detroit News Ann Arbor --
An assembly line of Comcast employees packaged 12,000 meals Tuesday for Dundee residents who are trying to recover from a June 5 tornado. Volunteers from The Kids Against Hunger Coalition of Michigan and Bethel Christian Ministry International in Oak Park put together some 12,000 meals, too. The coalition and Bethel matched the Comcast donation for the food. The more than 24,000 meals were distributed at three locations for the tornado victims. "Even though the power is back on and everything appears back to normal, it's not," said Jim Alban, of the Dundee area. The agency's food shelves are empty, said Alban, director of development for the Salvation Army of Monroe. Advertisement
The Salvation Army's disaster response team served 9,000 meals within the first three days, set up aid for 150 households representing about 500 people and provided $6,500 in food vouchers, mainly through Kroger. "Some residents are still hurting. Some didn't have insurance and those who did found out that insurance does not cover everything," Alban said. Hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged by the twister, one of eight to hit southern Michigan that weekend. Comcast's community affairs director, Maria Holmes, said the employees packaged 40,000 meals for Haiti earthquake victims in April. When the storm tore through Dundee, 25 miles south of Comcast's technical operations facility in Ann Arbor, employees wanted to mobilize their efforts again, she said.
The chicken-rice casserole packages mixed with six cups of boiling water make enough to feed six adults and 12 children, said Michael Burwell, executive director of Kids Against Hunger. The meals were dropped off at distribution centers at Dundee Baptist Church and Dundee Assembly of God Church, plus the Monroe Salvation Army to help those in the beach areas of Frenchtown and Berlin townships, also hit by the storms.
Comcast employees Mike Johnson, left, and John Manor refill the rice bin Tuesday as volunteers put together meals for tornado victims at the Ann Arbor Comcast facility. Comcast, Salvation Army and Kids Against Hunger joined forces in the effort. (Dale G. Young / The Detroit News)
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Kids Against Hunger Coalition has packaged 5,546,232 meals since the fall of 2004. 1,846,152 of these were packaged in 2009. This year, 2010, KAHC volunteers have packaged 856,872 meals. Since 2004 over 45,852 volunteers have participated in KAHC packaging. KAHC has shipped over 1,000,000 meals to Haiti, through The United States Navy, Coast Guard, and other humanitarian groups. KAHC has shipped over 14,692 meals to the Dominican Republic, over 648,000 meals to Guatemala, and 108,000 to Baton Rouge, Louisiana as part of Hurricane Katrina relief effort. KAHC has sent 50,000 meals to Ghana, and 405,120 to Kenya Africa. KAHC has also shipped 200,000 meals to the following countries: Panama, Nicaragua, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Tobago, and French Guiana. We have shipped over 70,000 meals to Manila in the Philippine Islands. Finally KAHC has shipped over 2,417,040 meals to local community shelters & food depots in Michigan Indiana and Ohio through distribution channels like Our Lady of Fatima delivery systems.