Mercy Chefs move headquarters to Wimberley

Chef Jay Bachman is officially on the staff of Mercy Chefs leading the nonprofit from its new area headquarters in Wimberley.

During an emergency in any part of the U.S. is where you will find Mercy Chefs cooking for those in need. When Wimberley flooded in May of 2015, Bachman set up camp for weeks in front of Wimberley Ace serving food to both volunteers and disaster victims. That is when he met Mercy Chefs, an organization that provides professionally prepared, restaurant quality meals to victims, volunteers and first responders in natural disasters and national emergencies. The organization came to Wimberley to help during the flood.

Sometimes they station themselves an hour or so away from a weather emergency before that emergency event happens, waiting. Their weather data is at the top of the list for knowing and predicting the weather. When the emergency hits, they’re there to help.

“This will be the Texas headquarters, disaster ready at all times in Wimberley,” Bachman said. “One hundred percent, all the time. Expect Texas to dive in and get to work. It’s easy to find volunteers in Texas, sometimes too many.”

Temporarily the mobile kitchen will be stored at the United Methodist Church’s parking lot, later maybe a possible refrigerated trailer. The group provides hot gourmet meals to the first responders and help those who have lost everything and are living on the streets. “We feed body and soul. We offer hope. It’s so cool,” Bachman said.

“We need to find or build a big garage, 45 to 50 feet long and 30 feet wide with working water and electricity.” Mercy Chefs other headquarters and manager is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Both are ready at all times for an emergency.

“It’s a huge honor. There is no higher honor to serve the nation in this capacity,” he said.

“With the addition of Bachman to the team, Mercy Chefs will officially station one of their mobile response kitchens in the city of Wimberley. With one mobile kitchen already based in Rogers County, Oklahoma, this is a strategic positioning from which Mercy Chefs can rapidly respond to Austin, San Antonio, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, Houston and Texas’ Gulf Coast,” reads the Mercy Chef’s press release.

Typically they are at an emergency event one to two weeks, “but it is not unusual, like in Florida, to stay longer or six weeks, like we were in Rockport. if it is that bad,” Bachman said.

At an emergency they have as psychologist, chainsaw groups, people on a mission trip and even provide daycare. Bachman’s passion runs pretty deep in helping victims of tornados, hurricanes or floods, and they were there offering their service.

“I was so touched by the people in Panama City, Florida,” Bachman said after volunteering during a recent disaster. “They’re in really bad shape, no hope. Now Florida is not doing a lot, it’s not interesting enough to be in the news cycle,” he said, pausing for a minute to get composed. “(The disaster area) was thirty miles wide, half the county was gone.”

The emergency caused other problems too, such as children being dispersed to bigger cities like Tampa and elsewhere. “I can’t imagine anything more hopeless or helpless than that. We sometimes don’t know what to do, but you have to do something.”

“Mercy Chefs is a 501c3 disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization founded in 2006 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The organization exists to provide professionally prepared, restaurant quality meals to victims, volunteers and first responders in natural disasters and national emergencies and partners with existing organizations with food service in underserved communities around the country. Since its founding, Mercy Chefs has served over two million meals,” according to their website.

Helping the hopeless and the helpless is what they do and now they have their emergency trailer ready to go at a moments notice. For more information or to make a donation, see their website at mercychefs.com.