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22/9/05 - "Katrina Crisis" - FTH keeps on Truckin'
Leaving our South Bend warehouse, local Michiana voluteer drivers keep the trucks and relief supplies rolling non-stop through the night to reach their destination over 1000 miles away - the equivalent of driving from Darwin to Adelaide.
Baton Rouge, LA – It was quite a sight to see all seven semi-trailers pulling into Baton Rouge, which has become the hub of Feed The Hungry’s Katrina relief efforts. Filled with well over 200,000 pounds of water and ready-to-eat food, they left the international relief organization’s South Bend warehouse.
Each volunteer driver had his own motivation to help:
Captain Rudy Jimenez of the South Bend Fire Department drove the Feed the Hungry rig. Jimenez, along with fireman Ken Marks, sacrificed their own vacation days to help others in need. In addition to the load they brought from Indiana, Jimenez and Marks spent three days along the Gulf Coast shuttling loads from the Baton Rouge warehouse to points of distribution like Lake Charles, Louisiana and Gulfport and Gautier, Mississippi. Marks was impressed with the work being done, even though they had to sleep in the truck and take cold showers from a garden hose. “I was happy to be part of it”, Marks said.Kosciusko county farmer Max Tom and his friend Gene Breedlove also answered the call for help. Tom heard a television news report that Feed the Hungry had loaded trailers but was in need of power to pull them south. Rather than bringing crops to market, Tom and Gene used their own farm truck to deliver 45,000 pounds of food to Mandeville, Louisiana on the north side of Lake Ponchatrain which had been hurt badly by Katrina.
Risinger Transport of South Bend has provided the bulk of the power to relieve distress in the wake of the storm. Covering two successive weekends, Risinger drivers volunteered their time, the company donated their trucks and trailers, and 19 semi-loads containing over 1,000,000 pounds of food and water were delivered to victims of hurricane Katrina.
Immediately after the storm, company vice-president Bob Risinger contacted Feed the Hungry to offer assistance. Risinger general manager Dan Keppel solicited donations for fuel and raised over $31,000 to cover the rising cost of gasoline. Feed the Hungry Director of Logistics Bob Boucek praised the outpouring of support saying “over one
half million meals and 26,000 gallons of water have been transported thanks to these volunteers.”Feed the Hungry, an international relief agency based in South Bend, IN is continuing to supply food and water to more than 100 churches and shelters along the gulf coast.
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