Miracles continue to happen at MORE!
August 13th we experienced an “over-the-top” Grand Opening Celebration with the community. During this time we announced that in the event of a disaster or crisis in El Dorado County, MORE would be there to support our citizens with food or meals.
Then, wham! The Caldor Fire happened and this community was in crisis and people were being evacuated, in the first week over 20,000 people were evacuated or getting ready to leave.
Immediately and without question, MORE wanted to keep our promise to the community and people of El Dorado County:
with a walk-in refrigerator and freezer granted to MORE from the Marshall Foundation for Community Health;
with a fabulous commercial kitchen sponsored by the Wayne Grey Wilson Foundation and built by Carter/Kelly Construction;
with incredible support by the Placer Food Bank who provided us with nearly all the food supplies we needed and more……
with a team at MORE (Board & Staff) that is without limits in what we can achieve;
and most critical, John Sanders of Old Town Grill agreed to partner with MORE and lead us in this quest; (and as most of the community already knows!) he is an awesome Chef, amazing leader and generous heart! We could not have found a better partner to fulfill our promise to provide hot nutritious & delicious meals to anyone impacted by the fire.
We set out to find out how we could help with the assistance of Board of Supervisor District 3, Wendy Thomas who invited us to attend one of the first meetings with a group of pastors that were seeking information on how to get the help people needed.
With the help of Feed El Dorado, Melody & Dave Martinez, Executive Director of Placer Food Bank, a group of 200 people evacuated was identified at the KOA in Shingle Springs
Our journey allowed us to experience firsthand the generous spirit of people in El Dorado County, who stepped up to do whatever was needed to support and help people in need! We were able to feed the people at the KOA 4 hot meals in two weeks and John provided Bayside Church & D’Agostini Ranch with additional meals
As our MORE’s team and John Sanders and his Old Town Grill team prepared to serve hot meals to people evacuated by the Caldor Fire, we both made the commitment to use any and all of our resources to make this happen without concern for additional costs that might impact both of our businesses’. We knew the El Dorado Community Foundation was a resource we could count on. MORE Board member and volunteer at one of the hot meal site, Joe Harn, learned about some of the additional expenses, he surprised us with a donation that would cover both of our expenses currently and into the future, when the need arises. Thank you, Joe!
At the end of the day, both John and Susie know what a miracle this project has been, but most important, we know that we have the ability to step up to serve hot meals wherever it is needed in El Dorado County at a moment’s notice. We have a team, a plan and the resources! And our commitment to the people of this community is solid.
Susie
