Special delivery: Salvation Army in Bend preparing meals for wildfire evacuees

And looking for restaurants to assist: McDonald's did on Tuesday

(Update: Adding video, comment from Salvation Army staff)

BEND, Ore (KTVZ) -- Major Michael Johnson is picking up quite a takeout order.

But it’s not for him.

 “I just love helping people,” Johnson told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday. “I love serving other people. I love putting myself behind and putting other people ahead of me.”

Johnson is helping to direct The Salvation Army’s efforts to feed Central Oregon's wildfire evacuees.

On Tuesday morning, they were preparing lunch for evacuees at three hotels in Bend and Redmond.

Many times, The Salvation Army is cooking these meals themselves, but on Tuesday, they got delivery -- from McDonald's.

Johnson picked up nearly 150 burgers donated by the store, but that’s only a fraction of the meals they’ve put together since being mobilized over a week ago.

“The meals we’re doing today, that should put us at about 1,300 meals,” Johnson said.

Each meal is put together by Salvation Army staff, boxed up and then passed off to the Red Cross, which delivers them to evacuees.

 “This is part of our job,” said Lisa Jacobs, a staff member at The Salvation Army “This is what we do: helping our community and our neighbors in need.”

Jacobs’ son, Tristen, is also pitching in. He said he’s put together around 400 containers to package the meals.

Johnson said they have enough volunteers, but there are still other ways to help.

“If anybody owns a restaurant,” Johnson said, “knows someone that owns a restaurant and can donate a meal either for lunch or for dinner, that would be tremendous.”

The Salvation Army was called by the state on Sept. 9 to start serving meals at the Oregon State Fairgrounds, Jackson County Expo and the Oregon Convention Center.

As the need for food has increased for evacuees, The Salvation Army is now serving meals in nine counties, including Deschutes County. 

The Salvation Army was asked to start providing meals for evacuees in Bend nearly a week ago. In one week, The Salvation Army served over 850 meals to evacuees in hotels monitored by the American Red Cross. 

This week, the Red Cross asked The Salvation Army to increase the number of meals to meet the needs of 160 evacuees for lunch and dinner in Bend. 

The Salvation Army said Monday it needs the community’s help to meet the growing demands in Bend. 

Restaurants can sign up to provide lunch or dinner here: http://salarmy.us/wildfire-relief-meals-deschutes-co

Volunteers can contact Major Michael Johnson to help assemble meals at michael.johnson@usw.salvationarmy.org 

DONATIONS
The best way to help evacuees is to make a financial contribution. Monetary donations allow disaster responders to immediately meet the specific needs of the disaster. 100% of your donation stays in Oregon to respond directly to the needs of those impacted by the Oregon Wildfires. There are a variety of ways the public can support The Salvation Army’s disaster relief efforts:

ONLINE:
bend.salvationarmy.org

PHONE:
Call 1-800-SAL-ARMY - Designate gift “Oregon Wildfire Relief"