“Yellow Hats” from around Mississippi converged on Greenwood last week to prepare meals for recovery crews at the site of the military plane crash that killed 16 last Monday in western Leflore County.
These are volunteers for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Disaster Relief team, headed on this operation by former Greenwood police officer Louis Grones, now of Carroll County.
“You can tell us by our yellow hats,” Grones said.
Next to him, beneath a blue tarp, team members flipped 450 hamburgers for Saturday’s lunch. Their specially outfitted mobile kitchen is part of a squadron of vehicles that mobilize when needed, including an 18-wheeler that can provide up to 20,000 meals a day when disaster strikes and communities of any size need meals.
The last time the team deployed was following tornadoes in the state in 2016 where they provided meals and other services, like cutting up fallen trees with chain saws.
On Thursday, they began preparing meals for crews headquartered at the county business incubator building in Itta Bena. Grones estimates they served about 2,000 meals between Thursday lunch and Saturday.
Dr. Jim Phillips, pastor of North Greenwood Baptist Church, has helped organize the effort with other local clergy, including the Rev. Peter Gray, rector of Nativity Episcopal Church, enlisting volunteers from around Greenwood for breakfast and lunch service.
Phillips said the Southern Baptist Convention has for many years has been “on the cutting edge, leading churches on relief efforts.
“We’ve been at it so long,” he said.
Grones said the Mississippi team has been operating for about 40 years, and that 42 state conventions across the U.S. have disaster relief organizations like this one.
The mobile kitchen units, like the one being used in Greenwood this week with its large aluminum tilt skillet, are headquartered at the convention’s Central Hills Baptist Retreat in Kosciusko.
“The food we’re bringing out there is paid for by donations to MBC Disaster Relief,” Grones said. “The military is supplementing the cost, and some of the food is donated.”
Phillips said the hamburgers were provided by Merchants Company out of Jackson, and earlier last week the Marine Corps delivered 300 cases of Gatorade and 100 cases of chips.
Larry’s Fish House of Itta Bena has been preparing dinner since last Tuesday and the Baptist Disaster Relief team will take over dinner starting today until service is no longer needed.
Phillips indicated that might happen some time in the middle of this week.
Meanwhile, the Yellow Hats will keep rolling out meals, three times a day, with assistance from the Salvation Army and numerous other volunteers from around Greenwood.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
