We Will Be There

By Tina V. Bryson

Volunteers with Feeding EKY shared laughter and conversation as they prepared hot meals to deliver to flood survivors. They have partnered with Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) Foley Mission Center to utilize the commercial kitchen to help more families in the region.

“We started the day after the flood, we were just trying to help people,” said Brent Handshoe, founder and director of the organization which has been in existence since July. “I was just trying to help my friend clean up after the floods. What was he going to eat? The refrigerator was gone, the freezer, the stove. All the restaurants were closed. There was nothing you could do to find something to eat.”

Handshoe went to his own home and gathered up a few items. He called his friend, Tanya Shepherd Hatfield, to determine how they could partner to help the community.

“I knew that if we were in this bad a shape here, people were going to starve to death because this was such a massive event,” he said. The next day he put a barbeque grill and a turkey fryer on his carport and cooked 600 hot dogs to take door to door to people still cleaning their homes that were caked in mud and debris.

“You saw the need when you got out there, with people up to their knees in mud trying to muck out homes, and they didn’t even realize they were hungry until you showed up with food,” he recalled.

Handshoe said time and again they encountered proud people who didn’t want a handout, but always tried to encourage him to help someone else that might need it more. “And they would be standing there in rubble, with nothing, but we came back,” he said. He and his team were committed to the work day in and day out to reach people in hard to reach places. In some communities where bridges had washed out or residents had lost their vehicles to the flood, Handshoe and his dedicated volunteers walked on foot, used four wheelers, and even horses to get food to people.

“We came across a little boy who had not eaten for four days. Another day we met a lady eating peanut butter out of a jar with a stick that she had found in the flood,” said Handshoe, who has only had two days off since Feeding EKY began. “If we can just take this one burden away. That’s why we’re here.”

In using this hands-on approach, Handshoe quickly saw that people had a variety of needs, and so they started the Blessings Carport. They collect items such as appliances, clothes, shoes, household items, bedding, anything that can be provided to families who have lost everything. It’s stocked and staffed 24 hours a day.

Volunteers gather each weekend to package about 1,000 meals. Feeding EKY has already distributed more than 80,000 hot meals door-to-door since they started in July. Increased prices will continue to be a challenge, but Handshoe is not deterred. Local partnerships like Grace Mountain Medical and CAP help, but he is also looking toward long-term assistance in the area. He has been in conversations with World Central Kitchen about how to scale up.

“You can’t just sit in a location and say to the people come to us,” he said. There is no public transportation here. No buses. No taxis. Folks have lost their vehicles in the flood. They have to walk. These areas are very secluded, long distance, very rural areas hidden away in these mountains. They are the most vulnerable, but we will be there to help.”