What We Do
Mercy Chefs originated as a disaster relief organization, and this remains our primary focus.
Outside of natural disasters and national emergencies, we recognize a responsibility to utilize our equipment, resources, skills and volunteers to the meet the needs of others. Consequently, when we aren’t responding to a crisis situation, our team is busy working on our other service initiatives.
Disaster Relief & Long-Term Recovery
We respond to natural disasters and national emergencies at a moment’s notice.
In our deployments, our professional chefs prepare high-quality, hot meals on a mass scale for victims, first responders and volunteers.
Our team is often one of the first organizations to arrive following a major weather event and is capable of providing 15,000 meals daily to meet the needs of a devastated community.
Community
Kitchens
Mercy Chefs’ Co-Founder, Ann LeBlanc, inspired the development of our Community Kitchens and Outreach division.
She recognized our organization’s responsibility to put our resources, volunteers, and skills to use outside of disasters to feed food-insecure populations across the nation.
In 2019, Mercy Chefs launched its first permanent community kitchen in Portsmouth, Virginia as the model for a program that so far has been replicated in Panama City, FL and Nashville, TN.
Food Insecurity Response
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Mercy Chefs has delivered millions of meals through grocery box distribution in places like Texas, Florida, Virginia, Puerto Rico, Oklahoma and others. The impact these groceries have made on people's lives is unparalleled, and we know we must continue to do more.
Not only have we expanded our grocery box distribution program, but we're finding new ways to support people in food insecure communities with job skills training, single parent cooking classes, and budget recipe creation.