ST. LOUIS – Volunteers from multiple states are joining local groups to help feed victims of the May 16 storms. 

Mercy Chefs is delivering hot, chef-prepared meals to those in need at the Dream Center’s parking lot in north St. Louis. 

On Tuesday, volunteers prepared around 1,200 meals for the lunch rush. 

“They want people to open up their clamshells and be blessed and have a top-rate meal. It is really impressive, very impressive,” Connie Lile said. 

Connie and her husband, Bob, are volunteers with Mercy Chefs. 

The pair never imagined tragedy would strike their own community. 

“We signed up for this organization about two weeks earlier and then God had us here at this time,” Bob Lile said. 

The couple said every day on the assembly line is different. 

Chris Caton with Mercy Chefs said the group immediately began serving up hot meals just two days after the storms. 

“We cooked out of their church, which only had eight burners and no oven, and we produced 700 meals. That was amazing; we were able to get right in the same day and start cooking,” Caton said. 

He said the need kept growing and they brought in a kitchen from Oklahoma they call Miss Hope. They’re currently serving about 3,000 meals a day and some are being brought right to their front door. 

“It’s just how awesome it is that everybody is chipping in and the community is coming together. All the churches in the area, and I know we’ve got several today, are working together. It is just a privilege,” Connie Lile said.