As Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica in October, multiple disaster response organizations coordinated efforts to provide essential food supplies to survivors facing hunger and food insecurity. Operation BBQ Relief, a US disaster non-profit organization, recognized the urgent need for meals and mobilized volunteer teams in Florida to prepare thousands of food packages for shipment to the affected island nation.
Working with Operation BBQ Relief executives, Joava Good, Deputy National Director of Churches of Scientology Disaster Response offered the assistance of her organization's volunteers. This collaboration brought together Operation BBQ Relief executives and volunteers from across the country with Volunteer Ministers from the Clearwater, Florida area through the Churches of Scientology Disaster Response program at www.csdr-us.org.
The volunteer effort operated from a massive Pinellas Park warehouse equipped with forklifts, pallet jacks and specialized tables provided by Amazon. For hundreds of hours, volunteers including many from local government agencies and schools worked alongside disaster response professionals in a fast-paced assembly line operation. The teams packed non-perishable food into two different box sizes designed to sustain a family of four for either three days (36 meals) or six days (72 meals).
Doyle Mills, CSDR national executive who coordinated the Scientology volunteers, emphasized the complexity behind what might appear as a simple operation. An amazing amount of logistical planning and work went into the operation these past weeks, much of it behind the scenes, Mills stated. Working with Operation BBQ Relief was a joy and a wonderful experience knowing that the end result would be helping those devastated by Hurricane Melissa.
The operation involved multiple coordinated tasks including labeling, assembling and taping boxes; opening pallets of food; transporting food to assembly lines; packing food into boxes; sealing boxes; loading boxes onto pallets; transporting completed pallets to plastic wrap stations; and managing cleanup and trash removal. The Volunteer Ministers program at www.volunteerministers.org provided crucial manpower for these essential functions.
Distribution logistics presented significant challenges, with some boxes transported directly to airports for loading into small planes for quick delivery, while larger quantities were trucked to Miami for transport by large cargo aircraft. Despite these complexities, the collaborative effort successfully shipped over 270,000 meals to Jamaican families affected by the hurricane.
What made the overall operation successful was collaboration – working together side-by-side to get the product, Mills noted. Hard work, yes, but we had fun knowing we were helping those in need. It was an honor to work with the Operation BBQ's team. The success of this coordinated response through organizations like National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster at www.nvoad.org demonstrates the critical importance of pre-established partnerships in effective disaster relief.
While immediate disaster response activities to Jamaica are winding down, hundreds of additional volunteers will be needed to address the next phase of recovery and rebuilding in the destroyed areas. This collaborative model between religious organizations, specialized disaster response groups like Operation BBQ Relief at www.operationbbqrelief.org, and government agencies provides a template for effective future disaster response operations worldwide.
