News Articles
12
OCT
St. Thomas Salvation Army Partners with Red Cross To Coordinate Deliveries
The Salvation Army’s emergency disaster services team has been working with Red Cross volunteers to develop a strategic system to efficiently deliver FEMA food boxes to residents on the islands of St. Thomas and St. John.
Two centralized sites in St. Thomas were created by The Salvation Army; one on the eastern end in Bovoni, and one on the western end at Reichhold Center. The sites were established as staging locations for Red Cross volunteers in smaller vehicles to refill and deliver food boxes to surrounding areas, which expedited the delivery process. Forty thousand (40,000) food boxes containing a wide variety of foods such as tuna, saltines, peanut butter and jelly, tortilla flatbread, chips, Vienna sausages and snack bars were put together by FEMA.
Although this process required frequent trips back to the staging site for reloading, it enabled Red Cross Volunteers to reach a wider area of homes. The condition of the roads was treacherous due to downed power lines and delivery to these homes throughout the various communities on the island would not have been possible in larger trucks.
The Salvation Army is part of the solution, but one organization cannot do it all. Working together with partners such as The Red Cross and FEMA strengthens our ability to help disaster survivors put their lives back together.
