JustServe Aids Relief Efforts After Summer Storms Hit Houston, Texas

This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.

By Mary Richards, Church News

A derecho — or a severe thunderstorm — hit Houston, Texas, on May 16, with tornadoes and 100 mph winds that caused widespread damage and at least eight deaths. Then, on July 8, Hurricane Beryl made landfall, killing at least 22 people and knocking out power to more than 2.7 million households and businesses in the blazing heat.

After both events, JustServe volunteers from various communities and stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came forward to help.

JustServe is a website and app where community organizations list their volunteer needs and where people can find out how to serve around them. In Houston, a faith-based, nonprofit organization called Mercy Chefs used JustServe to find volunteers to help provide meals in the days and weeks after these natural disasters.

After the derecho, JustServe volunteers joined with Mercy Chefs and Convoy of Hope at Hope City Church to make anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 hot meals everyday for a week to serve to Houston residents.

At the time, Hope City Church was also without electricity and generators were used to power the Mercy Chef mobile kitchens.

“Members of the Church and community with JustServe jumped into action to help distribute food,” said JustServe specialist Kelli Stracener. “We estimate about 100 volunteers came from JustServe from various stakes and communities. The extra help was needed and joining forces was a great way to build bridges with Hope City Church.”

They gathered to work together performing meal prep tasks and then carefully plating each meal to be distributed to individuals as needed.

Tori Trevino, the Houston Metro JustServe director, said several youth volunteered. “Our volunteers served five days and provided over 750 volunteer hours in feeding the community. Over 30,000 hot meals were served during the week,” she said.

After the derecho, many school districts canceled classes due to the lack of power in the area.

President David E Gonzalez of the Houston Texas West Stake invited the youth to serve at Hope City Church working with Mercy Chefs instead of staying at home.

President Gonzalez said, “As a result of their efforts, our stake youth accomplished the following: Our youth loaded 1,000 meals in cars that came to pick them up, formed an assembly line to put together 2,300 meals and filled two truck loads with quick meal kits.”

President Gonzalez’s son David Gonzalez said, “I’m glad I came. That was fun and we did so much.”

After Hurricane Beryl, members of the Bay City Texas Stake helped collect and distribute food with Food Basket Interfaith Food Bank. The organization had several fallen trees and branches on their property and needed help. Stake members worked with the Wesley Methodist Church collaborated in service, cutting the fallen trees and removing 20 trailer loads of wood from the property.

Missionaries from the Texas Houston South Mission and youth and adults from the Sienna 1st Ward and Missouri City Ward (Spanish) in the Houston Texas South Stake also helped remove fallen trees and fix broken fences for their neighbors after Hurricane Beryl.

Mercy Chefs set up their equipment outside of Houston before Hurricane Beryl made landfall, and were able to respond quickly once it passed. Once again JustServe volunteers showed up to help with meals, and Mercy Chefs served nearly 20,000 meals to those affected by the storm.

Wilson Eager, a high school student in the Houston Texas South Stake, was one of the volunteers.

“The day I volunteered for the Mercy Chefs event was my first day of summer vacation. When I heard about this opportunity and decided to go, I felt prompted to share it with other youth,” he said.

He brought four other youth with him, and they helped package food and handed out ice in the heat to those in need. Other youth that day distributed snacks and pallets of water.

“It was great to spend my time helping others,” Wilson said. “I felt peace as I was following Christ’s example of self-sacrifice and dedicated service.”

Wilson is part of an online GroupMe chat called “Youth Battalion Service” with other youth of his stake and neighboring stakes where they share opportunities to serve. They began the group to stay in touch after attending a For the Strength of Youth conference together and share spiritual thoughts and days to go to the temple together. The service message group branched off from that — and has resulted in increased youth service participation in the area.

Besides the Beryl response, the youth recently served at the Houston Food Bank, where they sorted enough food for 22,000 meals for those in need.

Said Wilson, “It felt good to sacrifice time to help people who needed it, especially because that’s what Jesus would do.”

Copyright 2024 Deseret News Publishing Company.