The Salvation Army, which runs one of those distribution centers, has also been feeding 200 meals three times a day to survivors and relief workers at three locations, said Cano. Southern Baptists were fixing as many as 3,000 meals a day for the American Red Cross to distribute here at the peak of the recovery effort, and all the cooking was done outside, under tarps behind First Baptist Church. As many as 60 volunteers were sleeping in First Baptist's Christian Life Center. Nearly 600 people had come through by Friday to get food, cleaning supplies and other needed items, said the Rev. Chip Pendleton, pastor there. Some church programs have been canceled or scaled back as a result.
People are just genuinely glad to be able to help.
As some of the volunteer groups complete their mission and go home, others, like the United Methodist Committee on Relief and the Kentucky Council of Churches' Kentucky Interchurch Disaster Recovery Program, will just be getting started. The ministerial association is working on an interfaith effort with Church World Service, part of the National Council of Churches, Spangler-Dunning said.