In a church parking lot in southwest Springfield Tuesday night, a line of cars began moving toward a tent around 5:30 — 30 minutes before it was time to pick up meals.
A large cooking trailer hummed nearby.
Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers were ready to begin handing out dinner early to folks impacted by Sunday night’s storms.
One of several volunteers shared what was on that night's menu. There were chicken sandwiches, sweet corn casserole and pudding.
Jerry Palmer of Marshfield is an incident commander for MO Baptist Disaster Relief, which is based in Jefferson City but goes all over the state to help disaster victims. He said they have six incident commanders for each deployment. The organization follows FEMA’s incident management system.
Palmer said they fed 557 people Monday night in Springfield and 425 at lunch Tuesday. He expected to feed around 450 Tuesday night. They’ll open up for lunch Wednesday from noon to 2 and for dinner from 6 to 8 at Ridgecrest Baptist on W. Republic Rd.
No one pays. Palmer said they won’t even take donations for their mission at food distributions.
"We don't want the people to get the idea that we're doing this for the donations," he said. "We're not. We do this because we love Jesus."
Richard Brummett is in Springfield again to help out — he was here leading chainsaw teams after the severe storms on April 29. He’s since been moved up and can now lead the organization if asked to. He explains why he volunteers.
"Because of the role model I had as a child from my parents, my grandparents, because God put a desire in my heart to help," he said. "I have skills. I give people the gift of my time is what I'm giving."
MO Baptist Disaster Relief just wrapped up 43 days in St. Louis following the tornado there in May, which caused over $1 billion in damage and left five dead. During their time in St. Louis, the team served 23,500 meals. Palmer helped close out operations there.
