This is a bit shocking. Millions of unemployed Americans may still be waiting for their first unemployment check. See below and please help.  --Gary

I received this report from my team just before the July 4th holiday weekend:

I am amazed at what God is doing through the faithful partnership of friends like you. There seems to be no end in sight to the opportunities before us to help hurting people. As of last week, Mercy Chefs surpassed FOUR MILLION meals since our founding -- just a few months after we served our third million.

But this leaves me with an enormous challenge this month and for the rest of the summer...

For most Americans, this will be a different Independence Day. Fewer communities will have fireworks displays, and millions are still in the midst of a very serious economic collapse that hit before many had time to even recover from the last tragedy.

I'm thinking about a single mother who recently came to our "Farmers to Families" outreach on the Florida Panhandle. She's an IT professional who holds a Master's degree. Her house was destroyed back when Hurricane Michael hit and sadly (like far too many) she is still wrestling with her insurance company to get the proper settlement. The home's electrical system is still in disarray, and she and her three kids sleep in one bedroom because there are so many leaks in the roof. Then COVID hit and she was forced to resign from her full-time job to work from home so she could take care of her children.

Halfway through 2020, what word would you use to describe this year?

2020: A year of __________

Perhaps "tension"? Or "shutdown"? Or "COVID-19"? Or "turmoil"?

In recent years at the start of the year, the Lord has given me a word for Mercy Chefs. Over the past three years, those words were "advance" and "surge" and "pursue." At the beginning of this year, the word was very clear...

We have just four days remaining in the month, and we are still about $20,000 short of our need. Can you help this weekend by sponsoring 10, 20, 40 or even 100 meals? Go here to make your tax-deductible gift, and see below. -- Gary

Today, we'll finish up another amazing week, providing over a QUARTER MILLION meals to hurting families and elderly shut-ins. I stand in disbelief when I type "quarter million." In this season of unprecedented trial for our nation, the Lord is doing remarkable things through the generosity of friends like you.

I know many, many friends of this ministry are giving out of their own need -- reaching out to help others during uncertain times or even while facing financial hardship themselves.

Every time we deploy, we see this happen again and again. A single mom, for example, who has been receiving meals from Mercy Chefs for days during a crisis will approach one of our staff and make a donation to help others.

Such an act of generosity happened again this week, in a different way.

Last week, we started distributing food across Puerto Rico through our partners on the island who are networked with 35 churches.

In our first week, Mercy Chefs distributed a staggering 100,000 pounds of food... just in Puerto Rico! Also last week, we launched our Farmers to Families effort on the Florida Panhandle.
Along with our Oklahoma base, these three outreaches alone will reach over 250,000 people this week.

And we still see no end in sight.

On Saturday, I shared with you about a very important need we are facing here at Mercy Chefs (see below).

I still need your help, especially between now and the end of the month just to keep up with the pace (we'll likely exceed 200,000 meals this week once again).

But here's why I'm asking you to partner with me. Because this is happening all over the country...

Sadly, our nation's economic crisis isn't going away. Economists are now losing hope in a quick turnaround. Please see below, and go here to help provide vital meals to those who are hurting. --Gary

This week, we'll provide about 250,000 meals. And the need seems to have no end in sight, especially with millions facing economic catastrophe.

+ + Troubling economic news

Another TWO MILLION people filed new unemployment claims this past week. Three months into this crisis, we are still seeing new unemployment filings that would have challenged the all-time records prior to this year. In total, 46 million have filed for unemployment. About one-in-five workers are relying on unemployment.

That's why we're still seeing long lines and incredible demand for help from Mercy Chefs.
Never before in our history have we been in more places and provided more meals than right now.

We just EXPANDED again. As a result, with your help, we'll likely reach even more people this week than last week when we helped provide over 215,000 meals.

Yesterday was our first day of distribution from our new "Farmers to Families" base of operations on the Florida Panhandle, where cars were lining up for food. We'll be reaching thousands of families in Panama City and extending all the way out into neighboring states.

Yesterday, Mercy Chefs reached a major milestone...

Our team just provided the THREE-MILLIONTH meal in the history of Mercy Chefs!

Go here to see a video and report I've prepared.

What makes this milestone so astounding is that just last year, we served our two-millionth meal. It took over 10 years to serve our first million meals. Then, the pace of ministry accelerated and we served our next million meals in just three years. Over the past year, the pace has increased exponentially -- especially in the past few months. Yesterday, we served our 3 millionth meal.

We are running at FULL SPEED right now. In fact, as I took a moment to assess our recent activities, I almost couldn't believe all that happened through Mercy Chefs JUST THIS WEEK...

With the help of friends like you, Mercy Chefs provided MORE THAN 190,000 MEALS... this week alone!

Again, that's just in the past week. 

Through our Oklahoma "Farmers to Families" outreach, we helped provide over 160,000 meals. That's 273 pallets or over 12 tractor trailer truckloads at maximum capacity.
In addition, our community kitchen prepared more than 13,000 meals this week, and another 17,000 meals were distributed at various locations nationwide through grocery program.