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.

I want to let you know what the generosity of friends like you is doing THIS WEEK to help hurting families across the nation.

Amazingly, Mercy Chefs has now provided over 600,000 meals during our coronavirus response -- clearly the largest outreach in our history. Some time this month, we will serve the 3 millionth meal since our founding!

Of course, for us it is always about the people we are helping  and right now the need is unprecedented. The heightened tensions we have seen in our nation over the past few weeks have only increased the urgent need for practical relief a need created in large part by 40 million lost jobs since the start of this crisis. A very recent U.S. Census survey revealed that a shocking 12 million households with children report not having enough food to eat.
Clearly, this current crisis will likely continue for weeks or even months.

We are getting overwhelmed by the need.

Today, food boxes will be distributed through our pilot "Farmers to Families" program in Oklahoma to 50 locations -- nearly double from just last week. At our distribution center in Claremore, so many people are coming directly to Mercy Chefs for food that the city has jumped in and is helping us with space, volunteers, and traffic flow. Yes, TRAFFIC FLOW! I just got off the phone and there were already 2,000 cars lined up and we were still an hour away from the time for our distribution. The police are actually redirecting traffic. Please understand -- Claremore is a small town, under 20,000 people. But this is just how great the need is in rural areas.

And the people on the receiving end of your generosity are seriously in need. These families aren't coming to us for extra groceries. What we are providing may be all they have in their pantries. The level of need is heartbreaking.

I face a major decision.

We just launched our third unique coronavirus crisis outreach -- our "Farmers to Families" food box pilot program in Oklahoma. In our first week, this new outreach has already provided food for more than 15,000 people in hard-to-reach areas.

At the same time, this weekend we'll exceed 400,000 meals total 
served through our meal box and community kitchen meal programs that continue to minister to tens of thousands every week. We have never reached so many at-risk kids, struggling families and elderly shut-ins in our history.

I hope you saw my update yesterday regarding a huge turnaround Mercy Chefs is taking part in -- helping farmers turn food that was going to be wasted into meals for hurting people who are struggling during the coronavirus crisis.

Today, our pilot "Farmers to Families" program in Oklahoma will deliver enough food for about 6,000 meals for hurting families. I want to expand this program to other states in the next two weeks, but I need help today to move forward! Please take a moment right now to partner with Mercy Chefs to help turn food that was going to be wasted into life-supporting meals for hurting folks during this crisis. 

One of the unexpected nightmares of the coronavirus crisis has been the stories of food going to waste.

With supply chains being disrupted, farmers across the country are facing the impossible decision of plowing their crops back into the ground despite the fact that millions of hard-hit Americans are waiting in long lines for food. This amounts to a tragic waste of food when so many are struggling.

Thankfully, the U.S. government recently initiated a "Farmers to Families Food Box" program to turn the food that would have been wasted into meals for hurting families. One of the key "missing links" in the process is getting the boxed-up food from the farmers and distributors into the hands of those in need in the hardest-hit communities.

Enter Mercy Chefs.