Jackson church donates 32,000 lbs. of food to Caribbean hurricane victims

JACKSON, Tenn. — Englewood Baptist Church will donate thousands of pounds of food to people in the Caribbean impacted by Hurricane Maria.

Workers wrapped up supplies Tuesday headed to hurricane victims on the island of Dominica. “They were hit straight by a category five hurricane, and basically everything on the island is gone,” Englewood Baptist Church Global Missions Pastor David Holmes said.

Holmes said the church is donating 32,000 pounds of food to the island, most of it basic items like rice and beans. “We’re from the South, so you’ve got to take some chicken and dumplings along,” he said. “We even have one big case of country ham, so they’ll know that it came from Tennessee.”

Workers with Averitt in north Jackson loaded about 20 pallets worth of food and supplies Tuesday into a 40-foot container. “The container will go to Memphis, be loaded on the rail, go to Jacksonville, Fla., then the container will be put on a boat in Jacksonville and go directly to the island of Dominica,” Averitt Transportation Specialist David Harlan said.

Harlan, who also attends Englewood Baptist Church, will help make sure the container gets from dock to Dominica. “It’s just a blessing to be able to do this and to be a part of it,” he said.

Holmes said they will send down a group of about a dozen or so church members in early November to cook all the food. The church said they plan to stay about a week. “Englewood says we love the world, so we put our money where our mouth is and put feet on our prayers and go and actually try to help these people,” Holmes said.

Holmes said the $35,000 to $40,000 worth of food will help provide up to 1,000 meals a day.

Englewood said it plans to donate two more containers of supplies. The church will also send a team to the island in January to help build roofs.