When the two NCDA&CS Food Distribution trucks pulled up to Biltmore Church in Arden, NC, on Sunday, they were met with cheers and a round of applause. The Baptists on Mission recovery site had run out of food just moments before the trucks arrived, together carrying 32 pallets of protein, vegetables and fruits, said Walter Beal, director of the Food Distribution Division.
These are rough, tough truck drivers and it brought tears to their eyes when they pulled up right in time,” Beal said. “It was a happy moment in a really difficult time.”
USDA Foods are distributed to disaster relief organizations during times of disaster through the USDA Food Distribution Disaster Assistance Program. Baptists on Mission is responding to Western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Heavy rains from the storm caused massive flooding, power outages and extreme damage in the region. The organization currently has feeding units in Boone and Arden, and recovery sites in Boone, Spruce Pine, Hendersonville and Marion.
Baptists on Mission volunteers thawing
packages of meat to cook
Roughly 1,400 cases of food were on the two trucks that arrived in Arden on Sunday. Two more Food Distribution Division trucks made their way to the Baptists on Mission recovery site in Marion on Monday with about 1,000 cases of food. Trucks are continuing to leave deliver needed food items, including two loads to the MANNA FoodBank distribution site at the WNC Farmers Market in Asheville on Tuesday and Wednesday and another drop for today to a Baptists on Mission location.
.Manna FoodBank’s warehouse was destroyed in Hurricane Helene, so a temporary collection and distribution site was set up at the WNC Farmers Market, allowing the nonprofit to continue to serve over 200 agencies in a 16-county region in Western N.C.