Posted on 07/19/2007 8:21:06 PM PDT by Pyro7480
GULFPORT, Miss. - They gave Greg Porter the key to the city for his volunteer work after Hurricane Katrina. Then, he says, they showed him the door.
Porter received widespread acclaim — including an award from the White House — for founding God's Katrina Kitchen, a faith-based relief operation that has served more than 1 million meals to the storm's victims and the volunteers who helped them.
But the roadside-tent operation has been forced to move for the second time since September, because of what officials say were neighborhood complaints. Unable to find a new home, Porter expects to close God's Katrina Kitchen at the end of the month.
With the government overwhelmed in Katrina's immediate aftermath, tens of thousands of volunteers from across the country poured into Mississippi and Louisiana and performed heroic service. But now, some are finding their help is no longer welcome.
Porter said he suspects officials in this casino resort town regard his soup kitchen as an eyesore and an uncomfortable reminder that the Gulf Coast is far from whole nearly two years after the storm.
"I think it bothers them to face the fact that for a lot of people, it's not over yet," he said.
Mark Weiner, executive director of Emergency Communities, said the organization served meals to Katrina victims in Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish until local officials raised objections. Feeling unwelcome, the group moved to the devastated Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans in January.
Weiner blames the group's departure on a culture clash between parish officials and the many "hippie-type" volunteers. "I think they had an easier time working with Christian organizations than secular groups," he said.
Similarly, free medical clinics staffed by volunteer doctors have run into resistance from local physicians struggling to resuscitate their practices.
Jennifer Knight operated a clinic in Long Beach, Miss., that treated more than 22,000 patients with the assistance of roughly 500 volunteer doctors before she closed it last year. Knight worried about siphoning away patients from local doctors.
"We've got to figure out how the community can help itself," she said.
Last week, the state Medical Licensure Board's executive committee voted to allow Mississippi's two remaining volunteer clinics staffed by out-of-state doctors to remain open as long as Mississippi remains under a state of emergency.
Many volunteers say they have met with nothing but gratitude from those they have helped. Mark Jones, director of Biloxi operations for Urban Life Ministries Relief, said he has not heard complaints from neighbors. But his group is feeding only volunteers at its camp in a sparsely populated neighborhood.
God's Katrina Kitchen is one of the few still regularly serving free meals to residents.
Porter, 48, of Penrod, Ky., drove to Mississippi after the storm hit, and started grilling hamburgers in Pass Christian. The one-man operation quickly grew into a bustling food distribution center. At its peak, in March 2006, the kitchen was serving 3,500 meals a day.
Before long, however, neighbors started to complain about noise from the group's religious services, while restaurant owners saw it as competition for their customer-starved businesses.
Last year, Porter had to move from Pass Christian to nearby Gulfport to make room for a condominium project. Pass Christian gave him a symbolic key to the city but made only a "halfhearted" effort to keep him, Porter aid.
Then, Gulfport officials recently denied the group's request to stay at its current site for another year, citing complaints that the free meals were attracting vagrants. Porter must move by the end of July.
Jesse Lewis, 81, of Gulfport, eats there several times a week on the folding tables set up under a red-and-white striped tent. The retired Los Angeles Police Department employee owes $287 a month on a federal disaster loan.
"I could probably still make it" without the kitchen, he said, "but it's a really big help."
Some of the kitchen's visitors were not directly affected by Katrina and were just looking for handouts, Porter conceded. Now, he says, the kitchen serve meals only to residents who can prove they registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
That hasn't satisfied his neighbors.
"The kitchen brought nothing but trashy people from across the tracks," said James Hebert, 68. "We need to get these people out of here so we can get back to normal."
City Councilman Neil Resh said: "They're doing fine work, and I appreciate what they do, but they had a year to find somewhere else to relocate."
Porter thought he found a new home for his operation, at a church in Long Beach, but city officials rejected that plan on Tuesday, citing complaints from residents who didn't want the food kitchen near a day-care center.
"The disappointment for me is that so many families still need our help and we're not going to be able to give it to them," he said.
THEN the federal government, so much paper work and elapse time between inspection and something being done continues since the storm.
Guess you missed this part of the story.
“Porter, 48, of Penrod, Ky., drove to Mississippi after the storm hit, and started grilling hamburgers in Pass Christian. The one-man operation quickly grew into a bustling food distribution center. At its peak, in March 2006, the kitchen was serving 3,500 meals a day.
Before long, however, neighbors started to complain about noise from the group’s religious services, while restaurant owners saw it as competition for their customer-starved businesses.”
“I don’t see them blaming Christians. Do you?”
You might reread this part of the story.
“Porter, 48, of Penrod, Ky., drove to Mississippi after the storm hit, and started grilling hamburgers in Pass Christian. The one-man operation quickly grew into a bustling food distribution center. At its peak, in March 2006, the kitchen was serving 3,500 meals a day.
Before long, however, neighbors started to complain about noise from the group’s religious services, while restaurant owners saw it as competition for their customer-starved businesses.”
If it wasn’t for the unwashed hippie volunteers.
They wouldn’t need a soup kitchen.
The "climate change" folks need to keep the legend alive.
And God’s Katrina Kitchen is secular? Strange.
“I do not expect a huge infusion of IQ points into the Katrina devastation anytime soon.”
I would have thought that after Biloxi (and others) were flattened in 1969. But the fools came back and built. They’ll do it again and be stunned again when the next monster hurricane hits. And then they’ll want me to help pay through FEMA assistance and higher premiums on my insurance.
New word for FR — like hugh for huge! LOL!"
Shoot fire!
An' me not bein' awaya o'dat.
Having family who live there, and planning to move there soon, myself, I find your comments disgusting. Katrina was ONE storm, and was the worst in 40 years in that area. Yes, it was devastating, and yes, many families have not moved back, but that does not mean that those who stayed or those who are coming back are somehow mentally deficient.
The MS Gulf Coast is a beautiful place, and a nice place to live. It will return to an even better situation than it was before, just as it did after Camille, which caused quite a bit of destruction herself in 1969.
By your estimation of people living in areas that could conceivably be devastated by bad weather, do you consider all the residents of Oklahoma to be 'welfarists' or of diminished IQ because they continue to rebuild each time after tornadoes destroy buildings and homes? That area is the most tornado ravaged in the country, yet folks continue to live there and move there from other places. They must assess the risks and decide to play them, the same as the folks along the Gulf Coast, or for that matter, ANY area along the Gulf or East Coast, since there is almost no place along those coasts that has not, at one point, been destroyed or severely damaged by a hurricane.
Weather happens, and we deal with it. Sometimes it's worse than others. The people on the MS Gulf Coast are extremely grateful to the thousands of volunteers who gave up time, vacations, etc, to travel there and live in difficult conditions in order to help clear the destruction. My older sister lost her home, and she had folks who would just show up and help her clear sand off the slab and, every now and then, find little things she thought she'd lost in the storm. A group showed up at my older brother's house one Saturday morning where he, his wife, two of my sisters and their husbands were removing soggy sheetrock. They jumped out, and proceeded to make short work of that job, and offered to come back when he was installing the new wallboard.
At that point, basic services had not returned for many places, and some groups who wanted to travel to MS and LA couldn't do so because there were no places for them to stay, or facilities for them to be fed. Mr. Porter's 'Katrina Kitchen' was a Godsend to them., and to the residents who had returned to see what they could salvage from their homes. Now, the conditions have changed. There are more places for volunteers to be housed, and folks to make sure they are fed. That's probably why Mr. Porter has been asked to close his food operation. Folks living there now have the means to prepare their food. He might think about taking some time off, and preparing to help a different area of the country that may need him more in the near future.
geez, twenty years from now the "victims" will still be living off this crap. gawd.
our house was trashed by Hurricane Charlie, guess what we did? We picked up. duh.
Went back to work and consider ourselves lucky that nobody got hurt.
I'm so sick of seeing the ER filled with the people of New Orleans. The first thing out of their mouths is, "We're here cause of Katrina." ...yeah, well it's gone now, so ....leave.
Sometimes the charitable do get a bit vain--vanity happens to the best of us--
But, as typos go, it's good for a good thwack up the side of the head.
Hey,that’s Al Sleet!
I regret saying “fools” and I apologize.
I know that no place is risk-free but some are just inherently more dangerous. The Gulf Coast is beautiful, but eventually you WILL get hit by a hurricane. My cousin, who had a very nice home right by the water in Biloxi, was very shaken (he did evacuate). He lives in Baton Rouge for now and says he will never live on the coast again. And even with his millions, he was also unable to find a place to live for a while (except with family).
My relatives who were hurt mostly picked themselves up, although my aunt did get a trailer. But they also all had money and insurance. And they had family support, otherwise I’m not sure my oldest aunt could have gotten through.
I love the coast of Mississippi and I miss it terribly. I still have found memories and it makes me almost cry when I see the beauty gone. But it will come back better as it did after Camille, after Frederick, after Betsy...etc. But what makes the coast so grand to me are the people...not like people from New Orleans or Mobile or Jackson. They love a good time but work for it. They aren’t lazy and for the most part not white trash either. they get along with you whether you are black, white, gay, straight, Vietnamese, Korean, Muslim...whatever. They get their party hardy attitude from NO and there strong spirit from re-building and they are some of the most gracious people I have met in my life. The coast will build back if the people build back. You can’t blame them for being mad that their insurance they paid for decades won’t rebuild their homes. My fathers home suffered little damage from either Camille or Katrina yet he still could not get insurance because of where he lived. They are no different then San Francisco with the earthquakes or OK and it’s tornadoes...the damage of this storm was more widespread all at one time...not over a period of years or decades as it is with other parts of the country and their visits from Mother Nature.
Oh...that is very nice, ashtanga.
/sarcasm
I hope you read SuziQ’s post, and take it to heart.
GOOD post, SuziQ.
Thank you for your comments, Col.
I, for one, am very impressed with the "typical" folks on the coast.
Y'all make me very proud.
Thank you for all you did WRT Katrina.
I'm glad you finally got to vent, and a nice rant it was. ;o)
Thank you for the post and ping!
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