If I were to boil down to ONE WORD what Mercy Chefs brings to every deployment it would be this...

HOPE.

As in all our disaster relief deployments, when we arrived in Lake Charles last week, there wasn't much hope to be found. The good folks of this community had already been hit by two hurricanes and a major ice storm in less than a year. Then the rains came -- torrential, record-setting rains that even flooded areas that were relatively spared by the hurricanes.

Everywhere we turned, there were signs of despair. The stories broke our hearts. There were piles of belongings heaped out by the road in front of home after home. And to see homes still covered in blue tarps from the hurricanes now dealing with two feet of water was almost too much. 

Enter our Mercy Chefs team -- thanks to friends like you.

We set up our base of operations and began serving meals. Our staff and volunteers would gather each day in the morning and pray that God would use our efforts to bring hope -- and even a smile -- to the faces of those who were feeling such discouragement.

During our third deployment in less than a year to Lake Charles, Mercy Chefs provided thousands of meals (over 20,000 in all) to those in need -- thanks to friends like you.

And each meal conveyed hope of brighter days to come -- and that people across the country care enough to make these meals possible.

Thank you so much for making this and every deployment possible. Your prayers and your faithful support are blessing those in need and bringing hope to hundreds of thousands every month.

God bless,

Gary LeBlanc, Mercy Chefs

P.S. We still need help to finish this month. This past week, in addition to our Lake Charles deployment, our team provided thousands more meals through the Farmers to Families program.

In May alone, Mercy Chefs helped provide hundreds of thousands of meals. If you want to actively partner with Mercy Chefs to bring hope to hurting families, go here to help sponsor meals: