Sending help from the Heartland to Hurricane Beryl victims

Kansas City area nonprofits are sending help to Hurricane Beryl victims. Including Operation BBQ Relief, who is ready to help victims by handing out free meals.

The nonprofit has trucks on their way to Texas to help. They said yesterday that they were waiting to find out where they are needed most.

After natural disasters, Operation BBQ Relief comes into communities with free meals for those that need them. When they get to the places that need their help, they’ll set up their grills and post where people can find them across their social media.

Since they started after the tornado in Joplin, they’ve given out more than 11,000,000 free meals.

“I've never experienced this you know firsthand going through something like this. I've come in on the back end many times and so I know that there's a lot of emotions gonna go on, you know our prayers or go out to everybody that are affected there, but also know that we’ll be there with a good comforting hot meal,” said Stan Hays, Operation BBQ Relief co-founder and CEO. “They should follow us on social media. Tell their friends down there to follow us on social media because we post daily where food can be found.”

They need the KC community’s help filling and staffing their trips. They say that donations and volunteers are what make their trips happen.

“There's three things everybody can do. One, you can either donate. If you can't donate, you know, volunteer. If you can't volunteer, share our social media with your friends and family on what we need,” said Hays.

Hays told me yesterday where they had crews and food ready to get to severely hit areas.

“We have stuff staged just north of Houston... As far out as around Nashville right now. Basically, within a day's drive, to be able to get our equipment to where we need to go and the food and get in there and set up our kitchen in a big parking lot,” said Hays.

They’re not the only community organization helping Beryl victims. KSHB 41 News checked in with Heart to Heart out of Lenexa yesterday, and they currently have teams in Jamaica passing out hygiene kits. They said they’re assessing if they’ll make their way to Texas as well.