A new 20-foot mobile kitchen will put a team of four or five people on the scene of a disaster in most parts of Illinois within 2-4 hours of an event and ready to serve up to 1,000 meals per day. The Quick Response Unit was purchased by Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief (IBDR) with grants from Home Depot and Baptist Foundation of Illinois (BFI).
“The old-style feeding unit would require up to 30 people to operate and two or three days to transport and set up,” said IBDR State Director Arnold Rammage. This unit lets small teams cook meals like they would serve at home for the DR workers and people in need after a crisis, usually weather-related, in places without the usual services.
“In the training we had recently, our national feeding director said don’t provide anything you wouldn’t eat at home,” Rammage said. So that means no hot dogs or hamburgers, because local donors show up with those. Often on the menu are hearty meals such as Salisbury Steak and Chicken ‘n’ Dumplins.
“We serve a 6-ounce protein, two 4-ounce sides, and dessert at most meals,” Rammage said.
Many state conventions’ Disaster Relief ministries are moving to the smaller kitchen units. This one was manufactured in Texas. IBDR equipped it with a 21 cubic-foot refrigerator, 9 cubic-foot freezer, 6-burner stove and oven, 40-pound fryer, griddle, and all the necessary cleaning equipment. The QR Unit also has a generator, for situations where electricity has been knocked out. The mobile unit weighs about 9,000 pounds.
“In the callout after the Mayfield, Kentucky tornado two years ago, this type of unit would have been invaluable,” Rammage said, because it is easily transported and set up.
“We had converted an old trailer into a roll-off “quick response” unit where we could grill hamburgers and hot dogs, but to provide a good meal, we needed one of these,” he said. “We have wanted to have one of these units in Illinois for about three years.”
Home Depot contributed $43,000 toward the $50,000 project, and BFI gave the remainder.
The new QR Unit, delivered in August 2023, is housed at First Baptist Church of Eldorado. It has been used for a training event and for a missions conference so far. The team is awaiting their first callout.
“Our team is excited,” Rammage said. “We have had a revival in our feeding team as result of acquiring this unit—both in enthusiasm and participation.”
IBDR is part of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, the third-largest relief agency after the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. In Illinois, more than 400 volunteers are trained and awaiting callout for relief work, including feeding units, shower/laundry unit, flood recovery, chainsaw teams, childcare for families working the maze of FEMA applications, and trained chaplains.