I know it's "Black Friday," but this has NOTHING to do with shopping...

As I shared with you a few days ago, I have been selected as one of six finalists for the 2020 Eagle Rare Life Award sponsored by the Garden & Gun website.  
The winner of the award will be decided by the results of an online poll, with the charity of the winner's choice (in my case, Mercy Chefs!) receiving a $50,000 donation!

This is a unique opportunity for Mercy Chefs friends to help us receive a much-needed boost for this ministry. As of this morning, we are in second place and closing the gap -- but still need your help!

This past weekend, our Mercy Chefs teams served holiday meals to two communities here in the U.S. that were hardest hit by natural disasters this year.

On Saturday, Texas Managing Chef Jay Bachman (pictured here) and his team were back in Beaumont, TX where we deployed after Tropical Storm Imelda flooded much of the area in September.

It was an honor to return to the Beaumont Dream Center and the surrounding neighborhoods to serve this recovering community. Chef Bachman's team prepared and served a beautiful and delicious holiday meal -- made possible by friends like you.

We are just 48 HOURS from this weekend's two major holiday meal outreaches -- focusing on two of the communities here in the U.S. that were hardest hit by natural disasters this year.

As I shared with you a few days ago, this weekend our Mercy Chefs teams will be in both North Carolina and Texas serving hot Thanksgiving meals to families still recovering from this year's storms. In Texas, we'll be serving Thanksgiving dinner at the Beaumont Dream Center while our team also delivers meals directly to the communities hardest hit by Tropical Storm Imelda. Then we'll be in Ocracoke, North Carolina, to support this community that was one of the areas in the U.S. that was devastated by Hurricane Dorian.

I have a favor to ask...

I have been selected as one of six finalists for the 2020 Eagle Rare Life Award sponsored by the Garden & Gun website.  

The winner of the award will be decided by the results of an online poll, with the charity of the winner's choice (in my case, Mercy Chefs!) receiving a $50,000 donation!

We're headed to two U.S. communities hit hard by disaster this year to serve Thanksgiving dinner. This is a practical way we can help those still recovering. See below. --Gary

Each year during the holiday season, Mercy Chefs provides thousands of full holiday dinners to disaster victims, children and needy families. This is one of the most important times of ministry of the entire year.

Once again this year, we'll be visiting sites of recent natural disasters to provide a much-needed boost to families who are still in recovery. Between now and Christmas, we'll be in Florida, North Carolina, Texas, and the Bahamas -- all areas hit by recent disasters. 

The holidays can be among the most difficult times of the year for disaster victims and those in need. Often our teams serve the only holiday meal these families will get. Especially for the children, my personal goal is to bring a smile to their faces and let them know that good folks across the country really care for them.

I just returned home this week from California and our highly successful wildfire response. The feedback we are receiving from local officials, the Salvation Army and others is almost overwhelming. When Mercy Chefs came into one of the main shelters responding to the Kincade Fire, the entire atmosphere changed. And now Officials want Mercy Chefs more involved in any future disaster response.

We've staged one of our mobile kitchens in California for the remainder of the fire season. Also, I met with state disaster leaders at the shelter we served and they want to further partner with Mercy Chefs in the future.

Why the favor? I believe it's God's blessing on this ministry -- along with our determination to feed "body and soul" with the best possible food served with love and care. For example, one evening for dinner last week we served barbecue chicken, macaroni and cheese, carrots with herbs, a fresh salad with balsamic vinaigrette,  and a piece of fresh apple crisp for dessert.

Yesterday was an amazing day of outreach to the families displaced by the Kincade Fire here north of San Francisco. A Red Cross worker told one of our chefs, "With your meal, the food is love. Everyone in this room felt the love that you put into this meal for us and for everyone in the shelter." 

https://www.mercychefs.info/ca_wildfire_update_serving_meals_tonightMercy Chefs is in FULL MEAL PRODUCTION today from our "Mercy One" mobile kitchen here in Marin County. Working with our partners at Bethel Global Relief and local church volunteers, we'll be serving about 1,700 meals today -- breakfast, lunch and dinner -- primarily to families who have been displaced by the wildfires and are now in local shelters.

Depending on what happens with the winds today, that number could increase dramatically by tomorrow. Emergency officials here are bracing for the winds to increase to up to 65 MPH which would cause the fires to spread rapidly and force more people out of their homes and into the shelters. Also a "cold blue" for cold was issued last night and already the shelter numbers are increasing.

It's hard to describe to you the feeling I have driving through these California communities that are being hit with wildfires again.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Mercy Chefs has responded to the wildfire crisis here. The air is thick with the smell of smoke from the Kincade Fire. Just driving in this region causes one's eyes to burn and throat to hurt. Air quality is very bad and the situation is made worse by the fact that huge sections of the state are without power or facing power outages in the coming days. Hundreds of thousands are under evacuation orders. People are sleeping in their cars. On top of all this, it was unseasonably cold last night.

As we have been wrapping up our Dallas deployment, I have been closely monitoring the rapidly developing crisis in California where the wildfires are reaching what the governor is calling "historic" and "unprecedented" levels.

Winds over the weekend have been gusting to hurricane-force levels in some places and over 100,000 have already been evacuated. Relief agencies are now estimating that as many as 300 shelters and feeding sites may be opened.