Convoy of Hope is helping to provide supplies to those in St. Louis and Kentucky who were impacted by Friday’s tornadoes.
The nonprofit sent trucks and teams Saturday from its world headquarters in Springfield and from its first regional distribution center in Atlanta, Georgia, which hasn’t officially opened yet.
Convoy of Hope spokesman Ethan Forhetz said they’re partnering with organizations that are already on the ground.
"Churches many times because they already have a large parking lot where our vehicles can show up, we can handle the distribution there, and oftentimes, they have a lot of volunteers who can help us get the product out, at that point to their neighbors," he said. "It's neighbor helping neighbor, which is what we love."
Convoy of Hope is providing things like food, water, tarps to cover damaged roofs, totes for people to gather their belongings, hygiene items, cleaning supplies and more.
Forhetz said, since the area impacted in St. Louis is densely populated, finding places to distribute from has been somewhat of a challenge.
"The churches don't have the big parking lots like they do in our area," he said. "They don't have a lot of land to work from, so it's been a little bit of a challenge to get the supplies to various different churches in different areas throughout St. Louis so that those supplies can be on the ground and get to the people more quickly."
The nonprofit said Sunday it had served more than 10,000 people and distributed more than 195,000 pounds of relief supplies in response to Friday’s storms.
Convoy of Hope has been busy providing supplies for people across the state impacted by severe weather in recent weeks, including in the Springfield area. April 29 storms with winds up to 95 mph caused extensive damage to trees and some buildings.
