After the holiday weekend, I want to make sure you have the latest on Mercy Chefs' relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia.

Idalia came ashore on Florida's Big Bend about a week ago, impacting a wide geographical area with power outages, flooding and storm damage. Coastal communities were hit hardest.

Within 24 hours of the storm making landfall, Mercy Chefs was deployed and preparing meals for disaster victims and emergency volunteers. In less than a week, we have provided over 40,000 hot meals, distributing meals as far as 90 miles from our base of operations.

Idalia's impact was far worse than what has been reported in the media. I want to make sure we can serve everyone here who needs a hot meal this week as they begin to recover.

Can you help?

Just $35 helps sponsor 10 hot meals for a disaster victim. Perhaps you can help us by sponsoring 20 meals ($70) or even more. Go here to sponsor meals for Idalia victims and volunteers:

Holiday weekends are always difficult in the aftermath of a disaster. Those impacted by Idalia really didn't have time to enjoy the traditional end-of-summer holiday. They have been busy cleaning up and figuring out the next steps for their family.

Thanks to friends like you, Mercy Chefs has been here to help these folks since just hours after the hurricane hit. We served meals on Labor Day and we're serving meals today.

Please continue to pray for the people here, and thanks in advance for your continued support.

God bless,

Gary LeBlanc, Mercy Chefs