Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Eight Days of Hope is deploying it's Rapid Response Ministry and Mass Feeding Ministry to two cities impacted a recent tornado outbreak along the Ohio Valley.
Steve Tybor with Eight Days of hope says the Mass Feeding Ministry began serving meals in St. Louis on Monday and will continue providing lunch and dinner daily through May 24.
"Our mass feeding outreach arm has deployed and will be in the St Louis area for at least through the weekend, maybe longer, until the power comes on. There's power outages of about 30,000 people, and traditionally, of those people are looking for a place to get a hot meal, and so we'll start serving meals tonight in St Louis," stated Tybor.
Tybor says that because much of St. Louis is still without power, the organization needs to be fully self-reliant as it begins its relief efforts.
"We bring in our own generators. We're bringing our own water. We actually have about five days of food prepared that we've made, just in the last month, frozen that will very quickly heat as we set up our command center. So again, feeding is so important after some people haven't eaten for 36 hours or 48 hours, and they need to get some hot food in their stomach and get the protein they need to start this journey. There are some challenges, but that's part of what we do."
A Rapid Response Ministry was also recently sent to London, Kentucky, which was struck by an EF3 tornado.
"We'll be tarping roofs, doing chainsaw work, helping families salvage the items that are still salvageable with their houses, many of them being totally destroyed. Volunteers, not only from Western New York, from around the country, will be serving over the next week, two weeks with eight days of hope."
Tybor says the organization is expecting to have thousands of volunteers, but they still need more help.
"We have people today from Western New York that said, 'Hey, I grew up in St Louis, and I want to go back and help out.' Well, it's free. We provide food and lodging. You just have to get there. Go to eightdaysofhope.com, Read the FAQs. Any skill set is needed now for our Rapid Response Division in Kentucky. You do need to be 16 years of age, but all the information is on our website," stated Tybor. Of course, donations are accepted. They can be done on our website as well."