Record 7.3 million meals provided to victims of Hurricanes Katrina & Rita

ALPHARETTA (BP) — An all-time record was reached earlier this month with more than 7.3 million meals prepared to date for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita under the Southern Baptists’ mammoth disaster relief effort across the Gulf Coast.

Previously, the most meals prepared in a Southern Baptist Disaster Relief response was 2.5 million during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Southern Baptists provide the third-largest disaster relief operation in the country behind the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army, with more than 30,000 trained volunteers on call for local, state and national emergencies.

At least 342 disaster relief units – more than half the total number in the Southern Baptist disaster relief fleet of 600 – have been activated in the wake of Katrina and Rita with 26 ministry sites and state units dispatched to Louisiana, 25 to Texas and nine to Mississippi.