Mercy Chefs providing meals to Tennessee tornado victims

AccuWeather

Amy Avery of Mercy Chefs spoke with AccuWeather to share how her volunteers have stepped up to provide food and relief to tornado victims in Selmer, Tennessee, as well as other areas over the weekend.

Transcript

00:00We're continuing to follow some of the aftermath of days of severe weather through since Wednesday,

00:05I should say. We've had several different severe weather outbreaks that have led to extensive

00:09flooding too. Yeah, tornadoes hit several states during last week's series of storms and severe

00:15weather. Selmer, Tennessee was among the hardest hit. They had an EF3 tornado there. Mercy Chefs

00:21arrived and is providing chef-prepared meals to residents. Spokesperson Amy Avery joins us now,

00:27and Amy, you've been distributing meals for several days, so what's the latest there?

00:33Yes, thank you so much for having us on. We've been in Selmer, Tennessee

00:37since Friday and we've done about 3,000 meals each day since then. We're set up at the County

00:42Agricultural Center and we have our mobile kitchens parked outside, but we've also been

00:46able to utilize space inside. They have a beautiful commercial kitchen, which has really

00:50helped with our production since we've been able to have some of our chefs inside and some of our

00:56chefs outside as well. But this area has been greatly impacted by those tornadoes that went

01:02through, and we've also been thankfully located enough here in Selmer that we've been able to get

01:08those meals out to several other areas that were hit as well. We were actually under the tornado

01:12warning on, I believe it was Saturday night. We had to shelter in place. We had to get our

01:18kitchens ready just in case, and we were able to still get dinner out, but in a safe way to people

01:25who were under that warning as well. But we have been here for several days now,

01:30just trying to get help to people in need. And can you describe the damage that you've seen

01:36in the community since you arrived to help? Absolutely. The damage has been absolutely

01:42devastating. There's several apartment complexes and trailer parks that were impacted here in

01:48Selmer, and a lot of those were rental properties, so it's created a bit of a housing crisis here in

01:52the county as well. But so many people that we've spoken with have just been so resilient

01:57through this process. They're just so thankful that they were able to have their lives throughout

02:02this process and to be able to have so much help in the community to be able to rebuild

02:08through this process as well. But prayers are definitely needed for people in this area.

02:13And you are based in Tennessee, but there's damage across so many states. So how is Mercy Chef

02:18mobilizing, and how do you determine where to go when you have this much coverage of area that

02:23needs help? We're always in contact with local and state officials to see where the greatest need is.

02:32But as we are out here, we know that there's several different weather events happening in

02:37other states and even in other parts of Tennessee. So we're evaluating that flooding,

02:42we're evaluating what our response should look like if we move from here to a different location.

02:48So we're always ready to go and we're always ready to feed people at a moment's notice.

02:52And how can people help the work your teams are doing?

02:57Absolutely. Well, if you are local to Selmer, Tennessee or Central Tennessee, we would love

03:02to have you out on site to volunteer. You can go to mercychefs.com to volunteer your time.

03:07Or if you're located a little further away but would love to stand with us,

03:11you can donate financially through secure links at mercychefs.com. And you can also follow us

03:16in real time on social media to see the stories of some of the people that we're feeding as well.

03:22Well, there you have it from Mercy Chef Spokesperson Amy Avery. Thanks again for

03:27joining us on AccuWeather. We're early. The people behind her have not stopped moving.

03:31No, I've noticed that. They're busy. They do such a great job.

03:33Absolutely. They're preparing lunch right now. So we're having beef stroganoff

03:38and they're preparing it in our tilt skillet. So they're making about 800 to 1,000 servings

03:44for lunch right now in just one tilt. And they'll be able to continuously do that all day

03:49to prepare lunch and dinner. Well, I know the people of Selmer really

03:53appreciate it. And we thank you for the work that you and your organization are doing.

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