With Leon's prior blessing . . .
With so many displaced by the devastation or Hurricane Harvey, a not-for-profit group called Operation BBQ Relief (OBR) (
https://operationbbqrelief.org/) has deployto to the Houston area to help feed those that could really use a well cooked meal.
OBR does provide updates when they can on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/OperationBBQRelief/posts/
Founded in May 2011 in response to a need for relief efforts in tornado-stricken Joplin, Missouri, volunteers from competition BBQ teams answered the need to help feed displaced families, police, fire, National Guard and emergency personnel, serving over 120,000 meals over 13 days.
Since then, usually working in coordination with the Red Cross, OBR has served in excess of another 1 million meals in response to disasters that have struck throughout the US.
My BBQ competition team supports their efforts financially, as well as having cooked for and served thousands as part of their deployment here on Long Island, NY after Hurricane Sandy hit 5 years ago.
You can help feed those in need with a donation to OBR: https://operationbbqrelief.org/apis/volunteer/donation
If you have concerns about where the money is going (and you should), OBR is one of the most transparent not-for-profits that I've seen, putting their financials/tax returns right on their website:
https://operationbbqrelief.org/financial-transparency/
This is an organization that we've supported for several years now, and if you are looking for an opportunity to so something meaningful I encourage you to
support them as well.
Thanks,
Tim