Operation BBQ Relief Feeds Thousands Compliments of Propane

(Since this Operation BBQ Relief article was published the organization has deployed to Northern California to assist victims and first responders in fire-ravaged areas including Sonoma and Napa counties. The organization’s co-founder, Stan Hays, has also been recognized as a CNN Hero.)

For the first time in a century, two Category 4 or larger hurricanes hit the U.S. mainland in the same year, landing a one-two punch within days of each other. In late August, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas three separate times over six days. The destructive 100-plus-mph winds, heavy and excessive rainfall—up to and exceeding 50 inches in some areas—devastated the Texas Gulf Coast. Hurricane Harvey’s catastrophic destruction left one-third of Houston underwater, displaced more than 13 million people in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and caused 82 deaths. Just days later, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane in recorded history, 400-mile-wide Hurricane Irma, slammed across Florida with record-setting wind and flooding that caused massive damage across the state and stretched as far as Georgia and into the Carolinas.

With Hurricane Harvey’s damages estimated at a staggering $190 billion, and $100 billion for Irma, the massive relief and reconstruction effort will run for years. However, an immediate need for basic necessities—food, water, clothing, and shelter—was urgent for the tens of thousands of hurricane victims, many of whom lost everything.

In disaster zones, propane is a vital source of energy to power life-sustaining services. The readily abundant and easily portable fuel provides backup power for electricity, fuels cooking, heats water, provides heat and light, and powers many other emergency response operations. Increasingly, public, private, and nonprofit organizations are relying on propane to alleviate power outages, food and water shortages, lack of sanitation, as well as other vital services. And in many communities, propane autogas is the engine fuel used in the vehicle fleets of first responders and other public safety agencies.

One disaster relief organization that depends heavily on propane is Operation BBQ Relief (OBR). OBR was established in 2011 in response to a need for relief efforts in tornado-stricken Joplin, Mo. When Operation BBQ Relief’s co-founder and CEO, Stan Hayes, and pit master, Will Cleaver, put a call out to their barbecue competition pals for help, award-winning teams from eight states came together to help feed displaced families and emergency personnel. During its first relief effort, OBR served more than 120,000 meals in 13 days and delivered food to shelters, hospitals, senior living facilities, and even the Joplin Humane Society. Since 2011, the organization has served more than 1 million meals to people in disaster zones across the U.S.

Hayes, a champion pit master who has won several barbecue competitions, including making it all the way to the finale of The Food Network’s “Chopped Grill Masters,” says the mission of Operation BBQ Relief is to provide compassion, hope, and friendship to those affected by disasters by cooking and catering meals for the victims and first responders. The nonprofit is an all-volunteer organization that relies on massive donations of food and supplies, fundraising, and monetary donations. For each dollar the organization receives, 90 cents goes toward putting food on disaster victims’ plates.

One critical donation includes hundreds of 20-lb propane cylinders that fuel the industrial-sized smokers that operate nearly around the clock during a disaster relief operation. OBR is grateful to its propane sponsor, Blue Rhino, a Ferrellgas-owned company that is equally committed to the mission of providing hot meals to disaster victims and first responders, wherever, and whenever, a catastrophic event strikes.

During OBR’s recent Hurricane Harvey deployment, the organization cooked a record-setting 371,760 meals over an 11-day period. That’s a staggering amount of food, all prepared by renown barbecue chefs who love to share their culinary skills to help those in need. In Texas, the team smoked nearly 145,000 pounds of pork alone. These pit masters would not have been able to accomplish such a colossal feat without the hundreds of propane cylinders donated by sponsor Blue Rhino that fueled 11 commercial smokers nearly around the clock.

“We have long recognized the important role that our product plays in severe weather situations,” said Chris Hartley, Blue Rhino vice president of marketing. “Whether it’s a hurricane, tornado, ice storm, or any kind of disaster, propane is an essential fuel source that makes cooking, outdoor heat, backup power, hot water, and much more possible. Propane is so useful in many applications beyond grilling.”

During the organization’s early days, Hartley met Operation BBQ Relief co-founder Hayes while attending a barbecue event. The two struck up a conversation about their love of barbecue and remained in touch over the years. Hartley said as OBR grew, “Blue Rhino realized supporting OBR as a propane sponsor was an opportunity for the company to do more to help communities in need. With grilling near and dear to our hearts here at Blue Rhino, we felt supporting Operation BBQ’s relief efforts was a perfect fit. It’s a win-win. Every time Operation BBQ Relief sets up for one of these terrible events, the amount of cooking they do is unbelievable. OBR is a team with big hearts and big-time talent as well. These are world-champion chefs and the food they cook is phenomenal, truly a blessing for disaster victims and first responders. It’s rewarding to see how OBR warms so many hearts and hungry stomachs wherever they’re deployed. In our own small way, Blue Rhino is happy to help make that happen.”

Hartley is humble. Blue Rhino works closely with the OBR team on logistics to ensure that pallets of propane cylinders are placed at staging locations where needed. When it’s crucial to get tens of thousands of people fed, OBR knows that the propane cylinders will be in place to fire up the smokers, tilt skillets, and other propane-operated appliances.

Hartley credits the outstanding work of Blue Rhino’s production and operations teams for the company’s ability to quickly move propane cylinders where needed. “Sometimes we can plan ahead based on weather predictions, and sometimes a situation calls for flexibility. You can’t exactly predict when, where, or how Mother Nature will affect a community. With Blue Rhino’s production facilities and propane cylinder exchange locations throughout the U.S., we can move propane quickly wherever it’s needed.”

“Every deployment is different,” said David Marks, Operation BBQ Relief’s chief marketing officer and the final episode winner of the TV barbecue-themed show, “Smoked.” “We’ve found the most efficient way to get the most meals to people is to partner with aid organizations already in the area to provide them meals in bulk.” OBR takes food orders from first responders, the National Guard, Salvation Army, Red Cross, churches, community centers, and other groups needing to feed hundreds or thousands of meals at a time. The food gets packaged in food-safe catering containers and is delivered or picked up accordingly.

The deployment in Texas included 500 volunteers from 23 states serving hot meals for nearly two weeks. The last two days were spent cleaning and servicing equipment preparing for Hurricane Irma’s deployment. When OBR posted a Facebook request for a staging area in Florida that had backup power, a kitchen, facilities to house volunteers, showers, and plenty of room outside for tractor trailers, commercial smokers and the like, an arena in Florida became their next campsite. The organization has developed “rock star” status among many federal, state, and local officials who now reach out to OBR when an impending weather disaster is predicted in order to enlist their assistance and help them coordinate its services.

To set up an operation of this magnitude would typically take days, yet the seasoned OBR team gets it all done in a few hours. Marks noted, “We arrived in Florida around noon and the next day we were serving hot lunches to thousands. Blue Rhino has been an amazing partner to us and we are so grateful for all the propane that keeps our smokers going.” The barbecue chefs expected to serve more than 81,000 hot meals while in Florida. By working with the Salvation Army and FedEx, OBR was able to airlift thousands of hot meals to those in need in the Florida Keys. A U.S. Army Chinook helicopter was used to airlift meals in Texas.

“Blue Rhino is an amazing partner to us,” said Marks. “We couldn’t do all this without their support and we couldn’t have nicer people to work with than the folks at Blue Rhino. They’ve become part of the family. A Blue Rhino team showed up in North Carolina last October after Hurricane Matthew and volunteered with us for several days. Not only do they volunteer and sponsor all our propane, they’ve helped us with fundraising efforts by designing and producing the T-shirts we sell. They even coined a hash tag to help raise awareness about our mission, #ilovemygrillfriend.”

The food and comfort OBR provides to disaster victims and first responders is possible because of the hundreds of people who volunteer and the sponsoring companies. “We are so fortunate to have sponsors like Blue Rhino and others like Butterball and Prairie Fresh Pork that donate thousands of pounds of pork and turkey. We are so grateful to our sponsors who so generously donate these massive amounts of food and supplies. OBR couldn’t do what it does without all their support,” said Marks.

As the Operation BBQ Relief motto states, “When people lose everything they have to lose, Operation BBQ Relief gives everything it has to give.” And propane is the one exceptional energy source that gives these world champion barbecue chefs a chance to share their great culinary skills to make a positive difference in people’s lives, whenever and wherever their delicious meals are needed the most.

While it is still hurricane season, Harvey and Irma have stretched OBR’s resources and volunteers thin. There are a variety of ways to help. Text OBR at 41444 to make a donation, or text the organization at 51555 to volunteer. There is also a mobile app, OBR Volunteers, where relief workers can sign up for a shift. Those wishing to donate supplies, or have access to large quantities of food, including #10 cans of vegetables, bread, and full-size aluminum pans with lids, OBR needs them by the tractor-trailer load. Contact OBR at OperationBBQRelief.org, or, consider making a cash donation. OBR can use its purchasing power to make donations go twice as far. —Andrea Young