A South Carolina Disaster Relief mass-care feeding team has arrived in Talca, Chile, and is preparing to feed as many as 20,000 people in four Chilean cities.
“The team is on the ground and is purchasing kitchen equipment for its mass feeding efforts,” said Cliff Satterwhite, director, Disaster Relief Group, SCBC. The six-member team, led by Steve Wise, minister of missions, First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, will establish feeding locations in four cities, including Talca which was at the epicenter of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake on Feb. 27.
Satterwhite said feeding began Friday, March 12, with expectations to feed 3,000 to 5,000 people at each location.
“The goal of our feeding teams is to go in and teach the people there how to provide mass feeding in times of crisis like this,” Satterwhite said. “Many of the towns are not currently receiving government or military aid, and we need to teach them how to care for themselves.”
Satterwhite said the kitchen equipment will be left behind when the disaster relief teams leave. Other feeding teams will follow, including one leaving Monday, March 15.
In early April, following Easter, a rebuild team will go to Chile to construct 500 12 x 12 prefabricated housing units for displaced people. A crew of eight volunteers can construct two of the units in a day, and each has a tin roof, door, and windows.
South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief is the lead state convention in aid to Chile following the earthquake. Satterwhite said state conventions work through Baptist Global Response of the International Mission Board. State conventions with disaster relief ministry are on a cycle, serving on-call as a lead convention one month and a backup another month. – SCBC