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Volunteers respond after tornado sweeps through Sikeston area
SIKESTON — Since the May 26 tornado swept through Sikeston, several churches, organizations and businesses have reacted with kindness to those impacted by and working the cleanup.
Among those is Sikeston First Assembly of God, which has been providing free lunch to all storm victims, first responders and storm workers as early as Monday, May 27.
John McHaffie, pastor of Sikeston First Assembly of God, said he teamed up with John Collom, director of Hope Center Ministries for Men in Sikeston, to provide the free lunches.
McHaffie said they have been serving everything barbecue from noon to 2 p.m. since Monday. He said Walmart and Food Giant in Sikeston and Sam’s in Cape Girardeau all contributed meat to the program.
“It’s really been a God thing and a community thing how everything has been provided,” McHaffie said. “We’ve had people from the area that have donated pork butts and things like that as well.”
McHaffie said the idea to feed the community came to him Sunday evening after the tornado hit.
“What happened was that I was out on the chainsaw on Sunday and a person came up to me asking where they could get food and I told them I didn’t know,” McHaffie said. “Then a second person came up to me, and a third person, both asking the same thing. And when the fourth person came up to me, that was when the idea just sparked.”
McHaffie said he then called Collom and informed him he had 40 turkey breasts in his freezer and that he was about to lose them. Collom said he was also about to lose turkey breasts in his freezer, so they decided to feed people and continue until the power was restored.
“Once we ran out of stuff, that’s when Food Giant and Walmart in Sikeston jumped in to donate meat,” McHaffie said. “I’ve had bag donations of charcoal from people just driving by who said they loved what we were doing.”
On Monday, over 350 people were fed, over 500 on Tuesday, over 325 on Wednesday and more than 200 on Thursday.
McHaffie said he believes they fed a total of around 1,500 people this week.
McHaffie said the church’s power was restored at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 30, and they did not provide the lunch on Friday, May 31, but they plan to serve the community again on Sunday, June 2.
“Serve Sikeston Sunday” will involve the Sikeston First Assembly of God along with other volunteers who will be serving the community, according to McHaffie.
Those who are volunteering will meet at Sikeston First Assembly of God at 12:30 p.m. for registration before heading out into the community to assist with the aftermath of the devastating EF-3 tornado.
McHaffie said they will head out at 1 p.m. with a tree trailer brigade formed to focus on the cleanup of Sikeston’s most severely damaged areas.
“We will load tree branches onto trailers and the trailers will be unloaded at the City Compost Pile on Compress Road, one block west of Northwest Street,” McHaffie said. “We will work on removing tree limbs, (no trash) from the hardest-hit spots in Sikeston.”
McHaffie also said that a care brigade will be formed to assist in the distribution of much-needed supplies such as emergency care packages, food, bottled water, toiletries and other items.
McHaffie said the supplies for the care brigade were provided by the Convoy of Hope out of Springfield, Missouri.
McHaffie said they will be out serving the community until 5:30 p.m.
Contact McHaffie or David Carnell on Facebook for more details about the community clean-up event.