Florissant church delivers meals for storm damage victims, workers

FLORISSANT, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Eleven days after tornadoes ripped through St. Louis, there are still so many people rebuilding from the devastation. A local church is providing much-needed hope in north St. Louis County.

Cross Keys Baptist Church in Florissant is helping one meal at a time this week.

Volunteers packaged pre-made meals on Tuesday morning. Pastor Raymond Cabello said they started last week and paid out of pocket for it.

Pastor Cabello said donations this week will allow them to help even more, giving out about 150 meals a day to those in need.

“North County is historically low income, so just being able to help with a meal takes the burden off of a family,” Pastor Cabello.

Each day this week, church volunteers will deliver that food to workers clearing debris and people who need help after the storm.

“People lost everything in their fridges. We had a signup sheet online for people to fill out, and 99% of the families we helped needed food,” Pastor Cabello said.

North County resident Markeisha Franklin said her family was one of the families who had food delivered. After losing power during the storm, she had to throw away nearly everything in her fridge.

“They came for the past two days to give us boxes of food and house supplies,” Franklin said.

Franklin and her three kids don’t go to church at Cross Keys, but they are so thankful for the camaraderie of the North County community.

“That’s a blessing because you bring people together. It’s a lot of people who need help and I pray they get help. You have to help yourself for someone to help you. I really like that. It gave me more motivation to have people believe in you as you’re trying to believe in yourself,” Franklin said.

Last week, the church was able to give out about 300 cooked meals.

“People are hurt. Living in this community my heart breaks for that because they are our people. People lost everything. They are throwing out family heirlooms that were damaged. They’re just trying to make it day to day right now,” Pastor Cabello said.

The church is also collecting non-perishable food items, feminine hygiene products, diapers, wipes and other things people might be in need of following that storm.