Mercy Chefs providing meals to Helene victims for holidays

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Gary LeBlanc of Mercy Chefs is in Asheville, North Carolina, where they're planning to host a Thanksgiving dinner to provide relief and comfort for the victims of Hurricane Helene this holiday season.

Transcript

00:00this holiday season. Mercy Chefs is still on hand to bring meals and provide relief.

00:05Gary LeBlanc is founder and CEO of Mercy Chefs. Thank you so much for joining us here today,

00:12Gary. You've just returned from the Asheville to return to the Asheville area. How are folks doing

00:18and what it's like on the ground there? Folks are still just working through an incredibly

00:25damaging storm. You know it's just been three or four days that they had potable water here

00:31in Asheville and last night was the first snow of the year. So many folks, some in tents,

00:38are waking up to snow this morning still trying to put their lives back together.

00:44That's pretty interesting. Some are living in tents and of course they're dealing with snow.

00:48Now Mercy Chefs is planning a big Thanksgiving dinner event. Can you tell us a little bit about

00:52that? Well we're going to be up in Burnsville and we're going to be serving there. We're going

00:57to be sending out to all the communities around there as well. But we think folks, besides what

01:03we're feeding daily, the people in need on Thanksgiving need a little reminder that they've

01:08not been forgotten, that the country is still standing with them and that even in this terrible

01:14situation there are things to celebrate. So we'll be there with a full Thanksgiving spread, turkey

01:20and dressing, sweet potatoes and beautiful profound pumpkin pies for dessert. So Mercy

01:27Chefs will be there doing everything we can. And what do you see as the greatest needs in the

01:33months ahead there? I'll just be very honest. I think the greatest need is to do what y'all are

01:41doing right now to keep this in front of the rest of the country. People here have not recovered.

01:47They have not gotten over this. They're still in the middle of a disaster right now.

01:52The greatest need is to keep the people of Western North Carolina, Tennessee,

01:56even down into Georgia and parts of Virginia at the forefront. This is going to be a very

02:03desperate holiday season for these people that have lost everything.

02:10Now you are obviously doing a lot of great work there. How can people help your mission?

02:15People that want to get involved with Mercy Chefs can go to our website.

02:19They can follow us real time on Facebook, but on our website they have links where they can donate,

02:25where they can volunteer, where they can find out where we're serving. So mercychefs.com and

02:31it's going to take everybody in the country helping out. Gary LeBlanc, founder and CEO of Mercy Chefs.

02:39Thanks for joining us. And again, Gary, thank you for everything

02:43that you and your organization is doing. And we wish you a happy, happy Thanksgiving.

02:51To you and your families as well.

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