It is one of those weird time warps where it seems like Harvey was forever ago, or it could have been just yesterday.  For many people, especially those who did not sustain damage from Harvey, it is long gone out of our minds.  We don't see it on TV anymore, and if we do, we are weary of seeing it, and have become numb to the devastation that is still out there.  

We chose to continue our Harvey relief efforts into the new year.  We are reaching out in two main directions.  The first is continuing our relationship with the Needham Road community.  We are going there each week with dinner and a small food pantry.  Twice a month we are coming in with a larger more complete food pantry, thanks to our partnership with The Montgomery County Food Bank.  The other direction we are reaching out is partnering with Battle Cry Ministries in Magnolia, Texas.  This church has committed to helping those who experienced damage during the storm.  They built bunkhouses on their property and a shower house.  They are hosting volunteer groups from all over the country who are coming in to help.  Until their kitchen is up and running, we are helping to provide evening meals as well as lunch fixings and snacks.  

One of the most important lessons that we learned from our first foray into Disaster Relief was that partnering is one of the best things that we can do.  When we work with others, we are able to accomplish so much more.

Thank you for your continued support of all of our work in the community!  Together we can transform it into a even better place!

It's been hard to explain all that we have done and learned in the first 11 months of our operations.  We want to try and quantify all the good work that our sponsors and volunteers have accomplished.  Here is a list of numbers:

17,475   Meals served (our goal was 3,000)
5,415      Volunteer hours (our goal was 1,000)
60,100    Pounds of perishables shared (our goal was 10,000lbs)
108          Days the truck was on the road
5               Different storage spaces
124          Instagram posts
247          Instagram followers
486          Facebook page likes
202          Average of unique viewers on the website per week
469          Average of page views on the website per week
​102          People who have signed up on our volunteer list
30,342    Dollars donated to help us continue Harvey relief
112,327 Dollars donated to help us continue our food pantries and community meals

Obviously, this does not do justice to the work that was done this year.  The stories are better.

• The woman who 3 weeks post hurricane told us that she smiled for the first time since her home was flooded while she was sharing one of our meals...
• The man who told me he had never had a conversation with his neighbor until they sat at the same table at one of our community meals....
• The young adult volunteer who told me he felt like his efforts mattered for the first time as he was serving meals in the truck....
• The two elementary aged students who volunteered to work on the truck, but thought it would be a better idea to play with the other young girls who houses were washed away in the flood, showing us all what is really important...
• The single dad who came to our food pantry and worked so that his family would have groceries while he was looking for a job...

There are lots of more stories that could be told.  There are more stories to be written.  Happy 2018!  We are looking forward to what it brings us!