Tyler

By PATRICK BUTLER
Religion Editor

The East Texas Food Bank will send 21 pallets of food to aid fire victims in Southern California, said food bank officials on Wednesday. Tyler is one of four cities in a “national strategic network” to be a first-responder to disasters occurring anywhere in the nation.

Smith County Red Cross also on Tuesday sent a disaster volunteer to help with California fire relief efforts.

The Associated Press estimated more than 500,000 people have been displaced by fires sweeping through dry brush, destroying homes and fueled by high gusts from dry “Santa Ana” winds after a record-setting drought year in the Golden State.

The Tyler-based food bank pulled 756 boxes of food “that will feed a family of four, for two days,” said Joey Morris, director of operations for the food bank. The food will be sent to San Diego.

“I think California is doing the best it can to provide for people fleeing the fire,” Morris said, “but we’re talking about a number of displaced people two and half times the entire population of Tyler. They need help now, and we’re ready to give it to them.”

Boxes prepared for families in need each contain items such as juice, peanut butter, pop-top cans of food, canned fruit, vegetables and beverages, said Morris. The boxes were pre-packaged and stored at the East Texas Food Bank just for events such as the California fire.

“America’s Second Harvest operates more than 200 food banks, nationally, Morris said. “They learned a lot from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as many (relief) agencies did. The emergency network of four food banks began to pre-package items and store them for quick distribution.”

Locations in the first-responding network are in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, and Tyler, said Morris. The network was activated by a phone call from Chicago, the headquarters of America’s Second Harvest.

“They called on us at 9:20 a.m. this morning (Tuesday),” he said, “and by noon, the food was pulled from the shelves and waiting here on the loading docks, ready to go.”

America’s Second Harvest will send a truck from Dallas, said Morris, to transport the food. No costs will be incurred by the East Texas Food Bank or its donors to send the supplies. Nor will there be any interruption of service to more than 200 local-member agencies that take care of the East Texas needy, he said.

“We still have two million pounds of food here for the 26-county area the food bank serves. The food we’re sending to California does not represent a bump in the road when it comes addressing the daily disaster of hunger right here in East Texas,” he said. “The food we’re sending has been ready to go for quite a while, and we’ve still got enough to keep our services steady.”

Morris said it will take “about a week” to replenish the emergency food boxes being sent to California.

“We could use donations of canned food items to help with that,” he said.

Donations can be made directly to the East Texas Food Bank at 3201 Robertson Road. During next week’s “Food Pantry Raid” donations can also be made at Robert E. Lee High School or John Tyler High School.

For more information, visit the Web at etexfoodbank.org, or call the food bank at (903) 597-3663.

The Red Cross office in Smith County deployed volunteer Paul Saidak to the wildfires area.

“Paul will be working in information support for three weeks,” said Susan Campbell of the Red Cross Office.

She said the Red Cross office anticipates deploying additional volunteers in the upcoming days.

Danny Mogle, assistant managing editor, contributed to this report.

Joey Morris, director of operations for the East Texas Food Bank, shows a box of food products that will feed a family of four for two days. The food boxes prepared in Tyler are headed to San Diego, where widespread wildfires have forced the evacuation of half a million people.
(Staff photo by Jaime R. Carrero)