Mercy Chefs "Hey Buddy" Podcast
Mercy Chefs "Hey Buddy" Podcast
From Immediate Response To Lasting Hope
Mercy Chefs has been on an extraordinary journey over the past year, serving 4.5 million meals across 26 deployments worldwide. From the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Helene to the remote jungles of Myanmar, our teams have shown up with unwavering compassion. Yet what sets our work apart isn’t just immediate disaster response—it’s the long-term commitment through our Beacon of Hope model. Born out of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, where we stayed for over two years, this approach allows us to remain with communities long after the headlines fade, walking alongside them as they recover and rebuild.
As we enter our 20th year, that same commitment is driving us forward. We’re opening new community kitchens in St. Louis and Tampa, expanding grocery box programs with ready-to-heat meals for families, and continuing to ask, “How can we reach one more person?” Whether you’ve supported us for years or are just discovering our work, we invite you to join us in this mission of feeding people excellent food with dignity, respect, and love.
Hey Nick.
Speaker 2:Always good. We are coming to you from our brand new studio. We're on video, everything feels very proper, very official, and we're excited.
Speaker 2:Beautiful space. We're excited to be embarking on this next chapter of the podcast and glad to have you with us. So thanks for watching, thanks for listening. We're excited about our conversation today. I pulled some numbers because it's been a while since we did a podcast a little over a year and in that time we have not been sitting around. We've been very busy and so just to put into context kind of what we've done over the last year.
Speaker 1:Probably why we haven't had a podcast.
Speaker 2:It's probably one of the reasons, yes, is that it's been a busy 12 months. We have done 26 deployments across the entire organization. That's Mercy, chefs Global and our domestic operations Wow, for a total of four and a half million meals in the last 12 months. Broken out, that's 15 responses from the global team for 2.6 million meals and 11 responses for the domestic team and our community kitchens and Beacons of Hope, totaling 1.9 million meals. So it has indeed been a busy 12 months. We've seen incredible growth, incredible favor from the Lord as we've walked in this work and I would want to ask if anything in particular over those last 12 months stands out to you stories, specific deployments, things that have touched you, since we've been apart from the audience.
Speaker 3:Well, we've actually had two massive events that have taken place in that timeframe. So Hurricane Helene coming through us deploying in Florida and then having a second site up in Asheville, north Carolina, and the devastation from that hurricane was just unprecedented. And then what we experienced in Texas with the Kerr County floods there that just so impacted community after community after community and the lives that were lost. It's really in both locations Up in North Carolina there was a massive loss of life and the same took place in Texas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think those two big ones stand out, but our ability to do the two big ones but still focus on ones that may slip under the radar for other groups. You know, if you were hit and you were the only one hit it was a huge disaster in your life, it was the once in a lifetime. And to see our dedication from the team no, we're going to get to that little town that had a tornado. No, we're going to get there where there was a freeze. We're going to get there where there was a flood, the dedication to not just do the big ones but to get to the heart of the need every time we can. The pace is incredible.
Speaker 3:It's something to see how hard we're able to work, how hard the team works to get to those in need and then, when you think about the global responses, we had team members that um were in boats heading deep into the jungle to unreached people sleeping in hammocks with mosquito netting um to get meals to groups there that were so desperate for food. And then the earthquake in Myanmar and I love seeing our chefs on giant pots on open fire flames feeding 2,000 meals a day out of that. It's really just remarkable the impact that's taken place.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and globally. Specifically, those 15 responses come in many different countries Afghanistan, pakistan, the Philippines, congo, indonesia, myanmar, uganda, cuba, dominican Republic, honduras, spain, mexico and those are unique events, not to mention the ongoing programming that we have in myriad other countries. And yeah, that's something that you know maybe people don't necessarily know is that, while we do go and respond in Texas and in Western North Carolina, and we are always watching domestic responses, we have a team that is hard at work across the world, um, working in in very hard areas to to make an impact in the same way that we do here domestically, and oftentimes, yes, it's over, uh, an open flame with the biggest pot they can possibly find and whatever scrap wood is in the streets in order to burn and get through those.
Speaker 3:You know it's know it's so amazing because we always partner with churches and even our global response it's churches that we work alongside and watching. You know the Hindu Kush and the pastor partner there had been working to go in to spread the gospel for five years and he took food with our team once and the doors opened and amazing things took place. And you know the support we gave that community so that they didn't have to sell their daughters for the rest of the village to survive is remarkable. It leaves you speechless when you understand the impact.
Speaker 1:I think too, though, the intentionality of what we do globally. It's not just we go and we do a little response here or there, but we're in these locations for years. We're in these locations constantly. The teaching kitchen and training base in Comayagua, honduras, that we have continues to operate and plant new community kitchens around Central America, community kitchens around Central America. Our new mobile kitchen in El Salvador gives us the ability to answer the call anywhere in Central America with equipment and our Mercy Chef team, and now a new teaching kitchen down in Argentina, as we continue to support our kitchens in Ukraine and around the world, where it's very intentional and it's not just showing up and around the world, where it's very intentional and it's not just showing up, it's being there all along and doing the hard things in those hard places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and really cool to watch those places take root, places like Argentina and Honduras, and I'm particularly fond. I've gotten to go to El Salvador a couple of times over the last year and begin to set up what we would call a mobile kitchen unit, and it looks very different than the ones here domestically but functions in the same way and gives us incredible reach into many, many more places across Central America. So excited to see where those things continue to go and how that continues to grow us. Today, I want to talk a little bit more about those two disasters that we touched on at the beginning Hurricane Helene and flooding in Kerr County, texas. Those two have spawned out of them a very unique opportunity for us for long-term recovery and what we call a beacon of hope, and so I'd love to hear the origins of the beacon of hope, this model for long-term recovery, where it started and why it started.
Speaker 1:Well, we don't think it's enough just to be there when the attention is on a place that's damaged. If we go somewhere because our hearts are turned toward the people in their need, we can't leave just because no one's paying attention to it anymore. If the people are still hurting and the people are still in need, we can't leave just because no one's paying attention to it anymore. If the people are still hurting and the people are still in need, you're not really a human if you can just go away and leave them in that moment. So to be able to stay with a community for a year or for years is incredibly important to us. And that kind of grew out of Hurricane Michael. We were going back and we did a Thanksgiving event, we did a Christmas event all down in Bay County, panama City, florida. It was destroyed by that storm. It was an unbelievably damaging storm, one of the worst I've ever seen, and it just didn't get coverage.
Speaker 1:And we were back at spring break and we were feeding high school students that were down there 500 people a day. It was, you know, for us no big deal, but I mean it was. It was a good thing to do. And then spring break for the local school kids happened and we went from 500 to 5,000. School kids happen and we went from 500 to 5,000. We're supposed to be there for a month doing 500 meals a day and all of a sudden it's 5,000. After that spring break was over, we couldn't turn it off. People just kept coming and like there is something here that's unique. The need, the demand is more than we could imagine and the city and the school came to us and said can you stay and feed our children and our elderly this summer?
Speaker 3:They had gone from a high rate. Like 75% of their school children were in a free and reduced lunch situation and it had gone to 100%. So every child. Um, because of the impact of the storm and because the federal declaration didn't actually take place until june, so we were there in march um this is after the disaster happened in the fall Right.
Speaker 3:It was October 8th, I think it was. So months went by before the federal declaration took place and the impact was immense and the ability to recover was so hampered by that lack of a declaration that we felt we needed, we need to do this. And two and a half years later we were still there. But the, the school gave you know the school system, gave us a mothballed school to work out of. We were able to make you know the classrooms into bunk space for volunteer teams to come in and help with the rebuilding and it was a significant impact.
Speaker 1:Two and a half years we were in that school and we labored very hard and we'd still be there, but they finally got the money to renovate and reopen the school in a neighborhood that really needed it, and Panama City and all of Bay County became home for our entire team. We can still go back there and be recognized by the people.
Speaker 2:And it's just incredible. I was there before Hurricane Milton last fall. We were on our way from Helene in North Carolina back to Florida, after we had left Florida the first time With a second team.
Speaker 1:Yes, time With a second team.
Speaker 2:Yes, left with a second team. So it was Florida, western North Carolina, back to Florida, and we took a stop in Panama City and a couple of us had an evening, as the storm was making its way across the Gulf, to go out for a dinner and wash some clothes. So while the clothes were in the dryer, we found a spot for dinner and our meal was paid for by just a member of the community, and this is 2024. And so that's six years after Hurricane Michael. That's an enduring impact and that's a community that still remembers Mercy Chefs. If you wear a logo in Bay County, florida, you will be known.
Speaker 3:And what a community that we've been able to build there and sustain there, and it's an honor that we got to work there and it's exciting In the last year we have a strike kitchen that now is housed in Panama City, Florida, and they're ready to help other communities and to deploy. It's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1:So we see the value in staying and we see the benefit for a community. We think it's really important. It's part of our DNA. Stay as long as there's a need, and we did that in Panama City and that was the birth of that Beacon of Hope model. And we've done it in Mayfield, kentucky, after the tornado. We're doing it in Western North Carolina. We're still in Western North Carolina doing 7,000 or 8,000 hot meals every week. We're over 800,000 meals in Western North Carolina and we'll cross a million meals by the end of this year.
Speaker 1:And now we're doing the same thing down in Ingram, texas, in Kerr County, in the aftermath of that horrible flooding down there. That's a community that's going to need us to stay with them for years. So we're working out of a sticks and bricks kitchen down there now that we re-equipped and are borrowing While we purchase and build a permanent kitchen that will stay as part of that community. It's our obligation to the people and it's one that we'll continue to see called for in different locations we go and work disasters. The need is great and the need does not go away when the news goes on to the next big event.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. These people will recover from what happened for a long time to come. We did over 100,000 hot meals in Kirk County in the 30-some-odd days that we were in the parking lot with our mobile equipment and at a certain point that becomes unsustainable for our teams. We are very good at what we do 30 days of working out of a parking lot in a mobile kitchen with facilities that you know aren't air conditioned. We don't put air conditioners on the mobile kitchens and it wears on the team and we have an incredible team, but there comes a point where it's unsustainable. And what an honor that we were able to find community partners in Kerr County that would open their doors for us as we find these next steps.
Speaker 1:It also creates an opportunity for us, nick, to begin to hire in the local community and train people there that can sustain those kitchens. Our entire Western North Carolina staff is made up of people that we hired, that were out of work after the storm, and we're doing the same thing down in Kerr County right now. These are chefs. These are people that stay with us forever. Three of our mainline chefs come to us out of great disasters Actually more than that. But I mean, if somebody comes and volunteers and they're good, we're going to put them on a day rate, and if they're good on a day rate, we're going to hire them and put them to work full time. And that's how we staff our community kitchens. It's putting money in every way we can back into the community and supporting the very people that have been through the storm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. There's so much need, not only for food, for rebuild efforts, but folks may have lost jobs as places of business were impacted the same way houses were, and it is incredible the way we see folks come and volunteer with us in the immediate aftermath and then stick around with us as staff members. You're right, a few of the, the chefs that and it's more than a few, it's it's frankly almost every one of the chefs that we have on our deployment team uh, came to us from a disaster, we'll sit and go.
Speaker 3:Oh, they came from Mayfield and they can't. You know it's it's. It's a beautiful thing. We're honored to have them join us and they feel the call as well. They see what happens in communities as a result of these disasters because they lived through it and because Mercy Chef came, they want to give back to other communities that experienced the same thing. So it's an exciting opportunity to really be entrenched in a community and really help the rebuild process. We'll feed volunteer teams that are in the areas working to rebuild, and then there's always need before a storm happens. The exciting thing about Texas is that that's going to become our base. We have our Alabama base that deploys to disaster, and when they have to travel into Texas it's a big, long haul, and so now we have a Texas team that will be able to deploy into disaster zones along the Gulf of Texas and up into Oklahoma for tornadoes and and flooding and whatever else may happen throughout that region of the country, and so it's exciting. It's exciting to have that base exciting to have that base.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I think you touched on a very interesting part of this is yes, we're serving meals in the community, but we're also standing up and coming alongside other organizations who are coming in for those rebuild efforts. One of the things that we see all over the place is there are lots of folks who really stick around long-term as well and a lot of them are focused on those rebuild efforts and they send whether it's a church team in or they send, like you said, spring break. We saw lots of people in Panama City coming for their spring break, spending their spring break serving and volunteering and rebuilding, and it's very, very cool that we get to offer a place for those people to stay and we offer them food as well, because that's a part of the rebuild to stay Um, and we offer them food as well because that's a part of the rebuild. There are community members who need ongoing feeding, but to offer um lodging and and food for those who are coming for those rebuild efforts is is a great thing.
Speaker 2:I remember um in the beacon of hope in in Kentucky and Mayfield and Paducah.
Speaker 2:It it operated a lot like a hotel and we would.
Speaker 2:We would take requests in from folks saying, hey, we're coming in for this week and, and you know we've got this many people and we wouldn't, you know, slot them in their rooms and make sure the linens were there and they've got towels and they've got everything they need.
Speaker 2:And they would get a continental breakfast from our chef. Chef john thompson was the kind of ran that that kitchen for a long time and he would lay out a continental spread for them before they, before the day. Um, and it was always, you know, it wasn't a hot meal necessarily, but it was enough to get them started and then we would pack their lunch with them and they'd take that out into the field, they'd do their rebuild day and then they'd come back and have hot meal with us at the end of the day. And it was a really awesome space and it wasn't necessarily tied always to folks who were still suffering from the disaster while we were serving those folks. That space that we built and created there in Paducah was such a hub for activity and folks coming in and doing those rebuilds and I think that's just an awesome thing that we've been able to support in the long term in those rebuild efforts.
Speaker 3:That's the biggest impact that you can make in a community is that you help support all the teams coming in, and we can't always look to the federal government to come in and or even the state government to come in and save us in the midst of this. It really does take. Community groups that come in and support the college students at spring break are just a phenomenal add to any community that's suffering, and that they come in and rebuild is beautiful yeah and they, they.
Speaker 1:It's just such a good thing it's a great thing, it's showing hospitality one to another, it's just that place of refuge, and somebody that's going to give up a vacation to come and re-roof homes deserves that. And it's what we do. It's Mercy Chefs, it's food, it's hospitality, it's love, it's caring. And I can't do roofs, I can't do rebuilds, but, boy, I can feed you while you're doing it. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:And I'm sure you could do that if that was your call, but that ship is sailed, I'm not roofing anymore.
Speaker 1:Not going to happen.
Speaker 3:But our call is to feed people, so it's a, it's a amazing space that we fill.
Speaker 2:And it's an honor to support those who are called to do roofing and tarping and knockouts and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:It's great that we can expand because oftentimes you know, we talk about the immediate victims of the disaster that we, that we feed and that's that's such a heart of ours. But the heart is is bigger than that. It's hospitality for everybody who's involved. Looking forward as we, as we enter into the 20th year of Mercy Chefs, I can't even believe it. I'm sure it's even harder for you all to believe. I don't even really have a question here. I just want to say thank you and congratulations. What do you see as coming next as we enter into 20 years? Anything that you've reflected on as we cross this major milestone and continue in this good work.
Speaker 1:I'm determined to get a nap before the 20 years starts. It's been an incredible run and, as we do take time, it's too late.
Speaker 3:This is the 20th year, so we're already there.
Speaker 1:We're already there, so maybe the time you missed the nap.
Speaker 1:I'll sleep on my feet, but to look back is so rewarding and it's startling to look back and to realize that everything that's happened still comes out of that original call Feed people, just go feed people. But we continually learn new ways to do that, whether that's globally, whether that's teaching, whether that's in our educational programs or expanding our disaster relief, and I think that's the big thing for the team. And then I want people to know is that we're not content where we are. I say it often, but I feed one person and I see three that I can't get to, and I just want to get to one more, and then one more, and then one more. And so we're constantly working. We're adding new equipment, we're building new bases, we keep onboarding incredible team members.
Speaker 1:I mean that's one of the most rewarding thing for me is to look at the family of Mercy Chefs and the quality of people that have come alongside the mission, and I know where we're going next week and what we're doing next week. I get beyond that. It's a little blurry, except it's going to happen fast and come furiously. I just keep following the Lord. Lord, what's next? What's next? Help me see it, help me understand it and then help me obey unflinchingly.
Speaker 3:In the midst of that, we also do have very concrete plans that are moving forward. We're expanding our community kitchen programs. We have identified St Louis, missouri, and that kitchen will open very soon. The Tampa Florida kitchen is open and operating and those community kitchens feature hospitality on a day-to-day basis, helping other groups and communities, doing these classes and teaching young people skills, life skills, how do you cook for yourself, how do you some certain skills that make it possible for you to get a job. So those things are moving forward. Our grocery boxes are expanding.
Speaker 1:That's exciting.
Speaker 3:It is. We've discovered that there are families that live in hotels. They are considered homeless officially because it's a hotel environment. They're working to try to get a roof over their children's heads, but it's very difficult for our family grocery box to have an impact when that requires a stove. So we're expanding our grocery box program into microwavable items. It's very wonderful to see in Texas they've already started making freezer packs and doing distributions with microwavable, fresh, handcrafted, chef prepared meals, and so that's a new dimension to what we do.
Speaker 3:So so those programs are continuing to expand and I think one of as does our staff and one of Gary and I's biggest focus is keeping the ethos. What's important about Mercy Chefs and its quality. The situation is that people are facing, whether it's disaster or disaster in their personal lives, that they're not able to quite get out of without a little hand up, and so keeping that quality across the board is a real priority for us, and we watchdog that pretty hard these days, and we watchdog that pretty hard these days, and so it's keeping that level, because that's true hospitality as well, is that it's excellent and that is our goal, that everything we do we do with excellence.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Always finding new ways to complete the mission. I always say that my favorite part about the mission, the call that you got from the Lord, is that it is simultaneously very narrow. It is a very specific calling, but there's lots of room in there for us to find new ways, interesting ways to fulfill that mission. And it is our constant joy and our constant effort to find new ways to serve people excellent food, the best meal possible given the circumstances, every single time.
Speaker 1:I love. Back in New Orleans. We used to always say more better. There you go, Something's going to be more better. Well, that's sort of Mercy Chefs there is always going to be more and it's always going to be better. That's right. So more better.
Speaker 2:There you go More, better. Well, thank you, guys for your time. Thank you for joining me as we relaunch this podcast. We're excited to continue having these conversations, not only with the two of you but with other members of the team, to continue to open up about who we are and tell these important stories. So thank you for watching, thank you for listening, thank you for joining us. We ask that you continue to pray alongside our team for folks in Western North Carolina as we come upon the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, for folks in Texas who are continuing to grapple with their new reality, for folks across the world, and for the teams here at Mercy Chefs who do everything we can every day to fulfill the mission to just go feed people. So thank you for standing with us, thank you for praying with us, and we ask that you continue to do so. Thanks so much, thank you.
