Slidell Catholics serve up more than just meals

Story by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald; photos by Beth Donze and courtesy of St. Margaret Mary Parish

With responses to four natural disasters under their belts since forming in 2016, members of the Disaster Relief Team at St. Margaret Mary Church in Slidell are known for rolling out thousands of hot meals to hurricane victims within 40 minutes of pulling up to the curb.

During the team’s most recent outing over the three-day-weekend of Aug. 28-30, the crew from St. Margaret Mary, accompanied by volunteers from Pope John Paul II High School, Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Luke the Evangelist parishes, formed an all-Slidell contingent of two dozen helpers that provided nearly 9,000 meals to hurricane-weary residents of Sulphur, Louisiana.

“We saw shell shock – the people who were walking around had bewildered looks on their faces because I think too many of them rode out the storm,” said Rob Bywater, vice president for social events for St. Margaret Mary’s men’s club and one of the Disaster Relief Team’s logistical leaders.

“What stood out about this trip was the gratitude that everyone had down there,” Bywater said, noting wait times of nearly an hour in the team’s packed drive-through line.

“At one point there was an over 3-mile car line for people to get food, and when they got up to the front, they were happy. They weren’t frustrated or stressed – they were happy just to get a meal,” he said.

Food for the soul

Amazingly, the “boots from Slidell” were on the ground within 36 hours of Hurricane Laura’s landfall in Cameron Parish as a category 4 storm. Setting up their feeding operation in the parking lot of a closed Kroger’s, the volunteer cooks dispensed 400 pounds of donated riblets – double-basted in barbeque sauce and cooked on-site in an applewood-fueled rotisserie smoker brought from Slidell; hot dogs; hamburgers; a vegetable medley; and the team’s signature dish: sausage and chicken pastalaya, chosen over jambalaya “because pasta cooks faster than rice,” Bywater said.

“(These dishes) are the most hearty and we can push them out to the masses the fastest,” he said. “With the two pastalaya pots that we have, we can do about nine hotel pans at a time. With the big crawfish pots, we can cook 50 gallons of vegetables at once.”

Fast action by the faithful

Bywater marveled at how quickly Slidell-area Catholics, even in a time of pandemic, responded to the latest natural disaster. In the days before leading up to the caravan’s Friday-night departure for Sulphur, students at St. Margaret Mary School collected donations in the carpool line and donated their own spare change from piggy banks. Within minutes of texting out a plea for diapers, formula and other baby products, parishioners from Our Lady of Lourdes Church went to Sam’s to purchase $700 worth of these items and delivered them to the staging area inside St. Margaret Mary’s gym.

“Baby items are the first thing (people) ask for when you’re responding to a disaster – a lot of times, before food,” Bywater explained.

Leaving a light footprint

Unfortunately, the team has had to mobilize about once a year since its founding as an offshoot ministry of St. Margaret Mary’s Men’s Club by parishioner and Slidell City Councilman Bill Borchert. The group’s inaugural trip in 2016 got meals into the hands of flood-ravaged residents of Denham Springs, Louisiana, and 2017 had the volunteers feeding residents of Orange, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey. Its third outing was in 2018 – to Panama City, Florida – in response to Hurricane Michael.

“(Going to Sulphur after Laura) was a really humbling thing – this was the first trip that we had in coordination with multiple parishes,” Bywater said, noting that the Disaster Relief Team tries to be as self-sufficient as possible when out in the trenches as not to dip into supplies intended for storm victims. For example, the Slidell crew always brings along its own tap water and basic meals, so that 100% of the heartier, donated provisions can be given to those who need it most.

Also, to free up hotel rooms for the locally displaced, crew members sleep in their own vehicles: two motorhomes and a trailer equipped with an AC unit and air mattresses.

No one goes away hungry

A disaster-relief veteran, Bywater said his love for this special type of outreach goes far beyond the sheer number of meals served; it’s also about the relationships forged between volunteer groups of different faiths and home states. Bywater, a Navy retiree, enjoys seeing people’s generosity snowball when they come together for a greater good.

One of the St. Margaret Mary team’s most memorable service trips often is described as “The Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes” – when the volunteers set up their feeding operation in a grocery store parking lot in Orange, Texas, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. The crew came prepared to serve 3,500 meals that weekend, but ended up serving 14,000.

“The grocery store opened its doors and literally gave us $10,000 worth of stuff – I mean, grocery carts full of eggs!” Bywater recalled. “We weren’t planning on doing eggs, but I get up early, so a couple of volunteers and I cooked eggs.

“We were feeding the police department, the prison, the hospital. We were feeding everyone,” Bywater added. “Just like in Sulphur, we were the only (feeding group) there for the first few days.”

The kindness of strangers also marked the crew’s trip to Sulphur, with Lake Charles-area Checkers and Rally’s fast-food restaurants spontaneously donating 5,000 hamburgers to the drive-through operation. 

“A local Chinese restaurant gave us pre-sliced chicken and beef – probably 250-300 pounds of it – so we made stir fry!” Bywater said. “We do whatever we can do to feed the people.”

Next trip is in the works

At press time, the volunteers from Slidell were still assessing the best destination for their second trip to Hurricane Laura-devastated southwest Louisiana, a journey slated for Sept. 11-13. Members take care not to place their meal service too close to any up-and-running restaurants, as not to compete with the recovery of local businesses. In the ramp-up to their service trips, the team purchases food it doesn’t receive as donations from Slidell-area vendors, to help the local economy.

Bywater said the next service outing will benefit from recent loans of a refrigerated trailer and a commercial generator, as well as some new menu items provided by a group of Alabama Baptists the Louisiana crew befriended on a previous relief trip: 2,000 pounds of chicken and 240 pre-smoked pork shoulders.

“So, our protein will be taken care of,” Bywater said, chuckling. “It’s not just ‘Give ‘em some substance,’ but ‘Give ’em some flavor.’ We’re trying to recharge them. We’re not just giving them food; we’re giving them good food. We’re giving them food that’s made with love.”

Bywater said disaster-relief work, whether it’s donating items behind the scenes or assisting at Ground Zero, is a great way the faithful can live out their calling to give their time, talent and treasure.

“We’ve all been there; we’ve all been in need at some time,” he said. “I do it just for the love of people. There are so many things going on in this world, but the simplest thing is to be nice, and to be giving, and to be charitable and to love thy neighbor. That’s what we do it for – to love our neighbor.”

The feeding ministry is seeking donations of hinged Styrofoam food containers in advance of its next trip. Please deliver by Sept. 9 to St. Margaret Mary’s school gym, 1050 A Robert Boulevard, Slidell. Monetary donations can be directed to the parish’s men’s club. Visit the website at www.saintmmchurch.org.

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