LONGVIEW, Texas (KLTV) – A large donation is coming to the rescue of an East Texas “rescue mission” to feed the homeless in desperate need of food.
Last month, the Hiway 80 Rescue Mission in Longview had a cold storage freezer stop working, causing food spoilage and having to throw away much of the stored items.
The mission regularly helps feed and care for the homeless and transients, especially in the brutal summer heat.
But last month they had a serious problem.
“Our freezer started working. We found that one of the compressors was down. While trying to fix it, the other compressor went down. We had to scramble to save as much as we could. We were out of trouble in about a week,” says mission director Brian Livingston.
Having to discard much of their food, the mission was in dire straits.
“We saved everything we could, but we could take the risk. We had no choice but to throw it away,” says Brian.
Coming to the rescue was a massive donation from ‘Tyson Foods’, coincidentally.
“One shipment was not accepted by the seller. They called us saying we had to put this chicken somewhere ‘would you take it.’ Can you give us an idea of how many chickens to expect? I hope it sounds like a pallet or something,” says Livingstone.
For a shelter that provides more than 500 meals a day, desperately short of food, it was God’s great. 41 thousand kilos of chicken.
“There is always divine intervention. We want to thank you, we want to thank you for the selfless sacrifice that people make,” says the director of the mission.
And at least for a while, there will be a lot of chicken on the menu.
“Chicken spaghetti, chicken and dumplings, chicken noodle soup, chicken nuggets, who knows?” says Brian.
Hiway 80 Rescue Mission regularly depends on public food donations to continue its work caring for the homeless and needy.
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