AUSTIN (KXAN) — Hundreds of central Texas volunteers got together on Saturday to prepare meals to send to hurricane victims in The Bahamas as residents brace for more bad weather.
Hurricane Dorian ravaged the islands, making landfall about two weeks ago leaving 50 dead as of Friday, according to the National Emergency Management Agency. Now, residents are bracing for a round of what’s expected to be heavy rain and winds from Tropical Storm Humberto.
“We are a blessed country, we are a blessed state, we’ve been blessed with a lot of resources and we don’t need all this and there’s a lot of people in the world that do,” said Cedar Park Mayor, Corbin Van Arsdale. He was at the Hill Country Bible Church in northwest Austin along with 350 other volunteers packing the meals to send to the islands. “It’s important for us to show up and give back and give to those who are in need.”
The volunteers were there with an organization called Dream Dinners for their annual feed the Hungry Event. They packed 50,000 meals to ship off to the Bahamas and for people right in Central Texas.
Each nonperishable meal has vitamins and nutrients that when eaten three times weekly can help combat the effects of hunger.
“One of the reasons I like these events is it brings unity into our community and its everybody growing and working in the same direction,” Arsdale said.
The group’s goal is to eventually ship 900,000 meals to the Bahamas.