A Volunteer's Perspective on Helene Recovery

When I first arrived at Equal Plates I was assigned to kitchen help and given a bushel of sweet potatoes and a peeler. Shortly after peeling I was given three bushels of kale and told to strip the leaves off the stalks and put them into a large container on the counter. I filled up three. Equal Plates is run daily, seven days a week, 365 days a year. For many of the staff that is their job and volunteers help to make their days just a little better. The meals they prepare are made at another Equal Plates site nearby and delivered to this place all labeled and in containers to be organized in the freezer. The meals are not just a meat and potatoes type, they are curry chicken, tofu with chicken and peas, beef with carrots and potatoes, kale and sweet potato soufflé, and many other recipes. They also prepare diet-specific meals like vegetarian dishes. My freezer job was to pick the already prepared and labeled meals that were specific for each box and bring them outside of the freezer to where the permanently employed freezer lady would pack them.

The Haywood Street Congregation is one of the two that left an impression on me. It operates out of a Methodist church in Asheville. The meals are served only on Wednesdays. The chefs work feverishly in the kitchen from early morning preparing the meals for the dinner crowds to arrive. The first day I was there was Thanksgiving week. Since Haywood only serves meals on Wednesdays Thanksgiving dinner was served a day earlier. Haywood has two large dining rooms with approximately 9 round tables in each room with seating at each table for 7. The dinners are in shifts starting in room one lasting about 45 minutes and room two already set up starts to serve about 30 minutes after the first one starts. Each room serves three shifts thus keeping the cook's jobs within some calmness as they need to finish and get the food ready to be served for the onslaught to follow. Each meal session starts with a prayer, and the first dinner starts at 10 am in room one, and the last dinner in room two ends at 1:00 pm. In doing the math they are feeding around 375 people. They don't really call us volunteers, they call us companions. We are encouraged to talk to everyone at the tables and wait on them as if it is a restaurant. They also ask us to sit at the table at some point and share the meal with them. There is a volunteer assigned to each table and they are responsible to get the tables setup before the guests begin to arrive.  The tables need to be set with dishes, water, forks, napkins, etc and the name of the waiter for each table is written on a small black bottle in the center of the table. They are trying to make the environment feel like a typical family dinner. When a seat at the table is available you are encouraged to sit with them and share the food and conversation. Many if not all of the people that come to eat are homeless but they are no different than you or me. They thank us constantly for doing this to help them and are very respectful. They are also allowed to take as much food as they want away with them, as long as they bring their own tupperware or container.

The other one that left an impression on me was Big Ivy Community Center. Big Ivy is serving as a distribution site for people in Barnardsville, North Carolina affected by the storm. As I was driving there I realized how hard the area was hit and this was the first place on my list that I was volunteering for. Barnardsville is only ten miles from where my daughter lives in Weaverville. For my daughter it was a frightening experience sitting in her house with the torrential wind and rain and the noise of trees snapping and falling to the ground not knowing where they would hit or the damage that would be done. The property had about 15 trees that fell, one huge tree uprooted. One tree came within ten feet of the house but luckily no extensive damage to the house or her car. The community center went from serving 200 people a week before the storm to 500 people a day in the aftermath. Many people are homeless in Barnardsville after the storm and I never heard even one person complaining. They supplied daily essentials such as water, propane gas, kerosene, gas and oil for chain saws and heaters amongst other items. There was a tent where they could go and have some food and some trailers located in different places that were used for clothes distribution for children and adults. There were necessities like heaters available but upon entering you would need to register with the desk as to needs and if one was available you would be able to pick it up. I was assigned to the fuel and gas distribution area. When people checked in they were given a green piece of duct tape stuck on there coat and it had details written as to what they were allowed to have from my area. Later in the day I was asked to count the number of large propane tanks both full and empty and then I helped load the 38 empty ones into pickup trucks to be brought somewhere for refilling.

While I was working a couple hundred feet away from me were two moms and one of them had two children with her, all of them were working at the clothes distribution trailer they were assigned to. I walked over to say hello and one of the girls had a box of necklaces that she must have made and wanted to give me one. They were all kind of knotted together and I told her that I had to get back to my station.

For the past seven years, or so years I have been giving a few dollars to children when I encounter them near me. In a grocery store, in a trailhead parking lot, in a restaurant, in an outdoor venue, especially when I get them dancing, or on a hiking trail. I had already decided that I would give these two girls some money with the same statement I tell all the kids I give to, that they need to buy something healthy.

I walked back to their spot and gave the girls two dollars each and a short while later the little girl with the necklaces comes up to me and gives me one of the necklaces she made. On the string are beads spelling the word Blessed. I am still wearing it. 

The Appalachian Community Relief was the other place I worked at. It was located in Black Mountain, North Carolina. This project was run out of the garden center building that was part of the Ingles supermarket chain stores. Even though nothing here left an impression on me it was nonetheless rewarding to help the people that came through. As with all the others it was well organized with registration for all the volunteers when you arrived. After that the supervisor would provide detail on how they operate and what tasks were needed for the day. Some would get assigned and some would get to pick and choose. The difficult thing for them was the fact that being a garden center there were no walls, just a roof and steel beams holding that up. If it rained the things that were near the edges of the structure would get soaked. Palettes full of canned vegetables and meats were all around and a clothing area in the rear of the building. Two 50 foot rows with just canned goods were laid out for people to see and pick what they wanted as they wheeled grocery carts along the aisles. There were more rows with women specific items and cases of baby diapers, all ages, and boxes of incontinence items. The list goes on and on. It would open daily at 11am and the line of people were are all outside waiting to be checked in and start walking through. Some of the volunteers were given the job to help and escort a person around the area until they were finished.

So this is my story for my time I spent in the Asheville area doing my work to help, just a little, with their recovery. May the people that have been effected by this tragedy as well as all the homeless see the caring and the love that all the people have shown to them in spending time to help them in any way they can.