Inside the
Winter Issue:

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Growing Up
With Hunger

Fan Fare:
Randy Rossilli

Fan Fare:
SpoonWalk

Tulane, Too Soon

Journal Provides Eye Into
Food Banks’ Efforts in
Katrina’s Wake

Chapin Christmas CD
Is a Hit Throughout
The Seasons

“Doing Something”

Goat Tales

Chapin Family Marks
WHY’s 30th Anniversary
With Benefit Concerts
in New York City

Harry Chapin Celebration
Concert Review

Time to Remember

Letter to the Editor:
Elizabeth Paquette

Letter to the Editor:
Greg McCaig

Circle! Calendar

Journal Provides Eye Into Food Banks’ Efforts in Katrina’s Wake

Editor’s Note: When Hurricane Katrina devastated towns and cities along the Gulf Coast in early September, the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank in Akron, Ohio, immediately galvanized community resources, and within days had gathered more than 75,000 pounds of food – enough for an estimated 58,953 meals for displaced victims of the disaster. Then, in early October, as the communities began to grapple with the challenges of recovery, Dan Flowers, the Food Bank’s president, traveled to Mississippi and Louisiana to lend his support. What follows below are excerpts from his journal, documenting his first impressions of that trip and the dedicated, heroic efforts of local food bank representatives to serve their communities despite their own incredible losses.

New Orleans Update 10.04.05

I flew into Mobile, AL, on Sunday night after what seemed like the longest possible route available for aviation that day. Of course, losing my luggage and not being able to get the rental car that was reserved for me was required after all of the layovers and transfers that I made during the day. But I was determined to remain positive and ended up at my grandpa’s house in Mobile late that evening. Although he’s 86, he waited up for me and we stayed up even later visiting and looking at pictures of the kids.

He sat through Hurricane Katrina just like so many others through the years… he’s got a system for survival. It was great to see him and it was also a terrific base camp for me to print all of my travel maps and gather information on what routes were open into New Orleans. After breakfast, we said goodbye and I headed straight to the Foodbank in Mobile to meet with their CEO, retired Army Cornel Dave Reaney.

Dave came into the network in 2000 and has done terrific work in Mobile. Their Foodbank has been in disaster mode and, under his leadership, has systematically responded to the flood of need and donations coming in from all over. The Mobile Foodbank is the parent to the small outpost Foodbank in Biloxi that was adopted by the City of Akron immediately after the disaster. Dave got me orientated to travel to Biloxi and I headed out across Route 10.

As I came into Biloxi, it was clear that I was headed into a major disaster area…the signs were everywhere. Every kind of debris imaginable is still on the sides of the roads and it looks like a snow truck went down the road and just plowed junk of all kinds off to the side. One huge metal building just off the expressway still had its roof but all of the metal around it was torn off. A sign out front read “For Sale – 20,000 sq. ft. of Shade.”

The little Biloxi warehouse was in shambles and the area around it has the most visible wind damage I have seen anywhere down here. New Orleans has had terrible flooding, but the destructive power of the winds in this storm were most evident in the Gulf Port area that I have observed. Building after building was just blown off its foundation…absolutely incredible.

The whole back side of the Foodbank there was blown away… bricks and all. No doubt these trucks will be a huge help for their operation.

Route 10 into New Orleans has been closed because much of it fell into Lake Ponchatrian. I had to drive over the 25 mile causeway to get into the city (which was hairy for me because I’ve never been much for bridges). As I got nearly across, the first thing I noticed was the roof of the Superdome and all of the images from CNN and the mess around there came flooding to memory.

To the New Orleans Foodbank, open from the first day since the storm, I was immediately impressed with the disaster this has been for the people that work here. Staff members have been living in corners of their temporary facility… working all day, with their families tucked into corners of the warehouse until evening when it becomes a little community of displaced people of its very own. A number of their people have lost everything, including their interim Executive Director, who, just days before the storm, broke her leg below the knee and has endured losing everything she owns on crutches. Their efforts have been nothing short of heroic.

The warehouse has a section full of coolers and cots that staff and volunteers had been sleeping on until recently. Several staff members have just disappeared and gone somewhere else to live. Meanwhile, their operation is still in total disaster mode. All of their distribution activities are being conducted on a by-pallet level. Products are received in 31 categories and when agencies call in orders, they indicate which category of product fits their needs. If there is a fit in the warehouse, a truck is dispatched as soon as possible.

The logistical problems have been immense and there is substantial inventory work to be done to reconcile all of the transactions since the disaster. I.T. people from other food banks are here installing all new workstations and server equipment. We’ve spent a lot of time in the last two days figuring out inventory issues in Navision and trouble-shooting the transition from the temporary warehouse in Baker, LA, to full operations in New Orleans (which might not happen for quite some time).

The scope of this disaster is too gigantic to grasp. This afternoon I drove all around the areas of New Orleans that were flooded and the whole place is just caked with this grey. Boats in people’s yards. Military check-points and streets closed off. Literally, block after block of houses that are totally destroyed. How in the world these people will put their lives together is beyond me.

Anyway, I was talking last night to a FEMA volunteer about vaccinations. When’s the last time you wondered if your TB or hep. vaccination was boosted? Go to a tent city and mix with people that have been living in squalor for 3 weeks and that suddenly becomes a priority. Who will provide security for drivers making emergency drops in areas where water is a more valuable currency than cash (that won’t spend at stores that no longer exist). Why not have a pallet with some cots and blankets stored on it in the warehouse? That kind of stuff…

More Later.

Watch for the Next Issue of Circle! on March 7