When Hurricane Laura ravaged the Cameron and Lake Charles a couple weeks ago, people did not hesitate to do what they could to help the people in the devastated area out. Thanks to a Marion County couple thinking outside the box, people in the affected region received a special gift in the midst of it all: A home cooked meal.
Mike and Rhonda Dykes took on this mission. Mike Dykes moves mobile homes and belongs to a group on Facebook of mobile home movers. One of the members in the group is from Cameron, La. The member mentioned things needed and one of the things he mentioned was home cooked meals. With no power in the area, everyone has been at the mercy of sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers.
Rhonda Dykes mentioned something on Facebook requesting people to prepare a meal and she and her husband would deliver them. At first, she said, she did not get a great response.
Then she thought about a group she belonged to on the social media platform called Quarantine Kitchen. People are always posting pictures of the meals they are making. She put the request for home cooked meals on there.
“It just snowballed. I even had one restaurant call,” Rhonda Dykes said Thursday.
She said they used the warmer from their church, Edna Baptist Church, and also Bunker Hill Baptist Church allowed the Dykes to use their warmer as well. She said they left Sunday night and with the help of several people in the Lake Charles area they were able to deliver something special.
Monday they used the warmers and warmed up the food and was able to hand out 600 hot meals. Rhonda Dykes said there was all kinds of food available: meatloaf, spaghetti, lasagna, jambalaya, chicken and dumplings and more. One person donated chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese for the children. That she said, was very well received.
Rhonda Dykes said they were also able to provide 71 meals to linemen as well.
“People would drive up and say they needed three adult plates and two children plates,” she said.
Rhonda Dykes said the people were delighted to get a hot home cooked meal. However, she will be the first to admit that the blessing was for her. Being able to bless, created an even bigger blessing for her in return.
She knows her husband will go back and help with the clean-up but she isn’t sure yet if she will be able to go back, but if she does, she said she might see about bringing more home cooked meals to them.
