From the Heart March 2023Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief is preparing for storm season and upcoming events for The Always Serving Project and development. We are actively recruiting new volunteers. If you love BBQ and love people, please download our...
From the Heart February 2023Message from the Co-Founders Outside of our disaster work we have our non-disaster program we call The Always Serving Project®. The Always Serving Project® supports those heroes that are always serving. We focus on first responders,...
From the Heart January 2023Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief is off to a great start in 2023. We held a Leadership Summit to discuss processes and procedures to identify short and long-term goals for the organization. We enjoyed meeting volunteers...
From the Heart December 2022Message from the Co-Founders As we wrap up 2022, we are thankful for each of our volunteers, supporters, sponsors, and partners! 2022 was a record breaking year with your generous contributions of time, talent, and treasure. Over 1...
From the Heart November 2022Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief broke records for the largest and longest deployment during the Hurricane Ian deployment. In 2018 following Hurricane Michael, Operation BBQ Relief provided 808,220 meals during a 30 day...
From the Heart October 2022Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief hit the 10 millionth milestone on October 10th. As I reflect about reaching our 10 millionth meal, I think back to the very first meals that we cooked following the Joplin tornado. We were...
From the Heart September 2022Message from the Co-Founders September is designated as National Preparedness Month as a national campaign for families and communities to be prepared if faced with the challenges of natural disasters and emergencies. Operation BBQ Relief...
From the Heart August 2022Message from the Co-Founders August has been a very busy month for Operation BBQ Relief. The historic flood in Eastern Kentucky on July 28th devastated communities across several counties. Operation BBQ Relief was immediately on the ground...
From the Heart July 2022Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief has served at multiple events throughout the country to share the healing power of BBQ. Through The Always Serving Project, we are grateful for the opportunity to serve members of the military,...
From the Heart June 2022Message from the Co-Founders We hope you and your families are having a great summer. Operation BBQ Relief continues to participate in several events from coast to coast. These events are a great opportunity to practice our deployment...
From the Heart May 2022Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief served our first meals 11 years ago on May 24, 2011. Since those first meals, Operation BBQ Relief has served 9.6 million more meals since 2011. We want to convey many, many thanks, gratitude,...
From the Heart April 2022 Message from the Co-Founders Volunteers are the heart and soul of Operation BBQ Relief. Operation BBQ Relief sends our gratitude to over 14,000 volunteers who have helped serve the one hot meal that matters. We continued to be inspired by...
From the Heart March 2022Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief continues to share the healing power of BBQ through our Disaster Response Team and The Always Serving Project®. Operation BBQ Relief deployed to New Orleans, LA to serve the one hot meal that...
From the Heart February 2022Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief is excited to announce our newest program - Camp OBR. Operation BBQ Relief continues to face the challenges of being unable to predict if and when disasters strike. The goals of Camp OBR...
From the Heart January 2022Message from the Co-Founders We hope you and your families are enjoying the New Year! We extend our gratitude to all our supporters who have helped us serve over 75,000 meals in Mayfield, KY. Thank you to the sponsors and businesses that...
From the Heart December 2021Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief continues to share the one hot meal that matters with families and first responders affected by the catastrophic tornado in Mayfield, KY and the surrounding communites. Many families have...
From the Heart November 2021Message from the Co-Founders grat·i·tudenounthe quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. During this month of November, the Operation BBQ Relief team has been constantly reminded of how the...
From the Heart October 2021Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief continues to monitor disasters to share the one hot meal that matters with communities in need. Our staff and key volunteers recently held a leadership meeting at our Tampa warehouse to...
From the Heart September 2021Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief has deployed over 80 times and each time we are amazed by the incredible sponsors, donors, volunteers, and staff who jump into action in a moment’s notice. We have sponsors delivering food...
From the Heart August 2021Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief values connecting, inspiring, serving, educating, and feeding communities in need. The phrase, “give an individual a fish and you feed them for a day; teach them to fish, and you feed them for...
From the Heart July 2021Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief has been busy preparing for future deployments. Our team recently held a mock deployment in partnership with The Salvation Army in Dallas, Texas. The mock deployment prepared staff and...
From the Heart May 2021Message from the Co-Founders Ten years ago on May 24, 2011, we shared the very first BBQ meals to families and first responders affected by the Joplin, MO tornado. The meals, volunteers, and community inspired Operation BBQ Relief into the...
From the Heart April 2021Message from the Co-Founders As we kick off National Volunteers Week, we dedicate this month’s newsletter to highlighting the amazing work of our volunteers. Volunteers are the heart, soul, and backbone of Operation BBQ Relief. We are grateful...
From the Heart March 2021Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief has been very busy sharing the healing power of BBQ. We deployed to North Carolina and Texas to provide hope, friendship, and compassion to families affected by the tornado and winter...
From the Heart February 2021Message from the Co-Founders Operation BBQ Relief launched our first billboard campaign! We extend our gratitude to Lamar Advertising Company for the generous donation of billboards to promote our mission. We love sharing in Lamar’s goal of...
From the Heart January 2021Message from the Co-Founders Martin Luther King Jr. emphasized that “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” Ten years ago, we found ourselves asking that same question. While there were many...
From the Heart December 2020Message from the Co-Founders Dear Friends, We hope you are enjoying this holiday season as we continue to adjust to the new normal. As we reflect on the accomplishments of Operation BBQ Relief during the past year, we are amazed at how the...
From the Heart November 2020Message from CEO As we prepare for Thanksgiving, the Operation BBQ Relief family extends our gratitude to all our supporters and volunteers that helped serve over 5.5 million meals in 2020. The pandemic combined with a historic disaster...
From the Heart October 2020Message from CEO Operation BBQ Relief is preparing to respond to Hurricane Delta as it has strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph winds. Jay Collins, Chief Programs Officer, is on the ground scouting locations around Lake...
From the Heart September 2020 – Hurricane Laura UpdateMessage from CEO In 15 days, Operation BBQ Relief has provided 293,231 hot meals with the support from over 200 volunteers from 32 states. While the number of meals served are extraordinarily high, the magnitude of...
From the Heart August 2020 – Cedar Rapids UpdateMessage from CEO Dear Friends, Operation BBQ Relief has had a busy week on the ground in Cedar Rapids. We have served 45,800 meals and will be serving another 9,400 meals today. Today we will also serve that one meal...
From the Heart July 2020Message from CEO It has been over 3 months since Operation BBQ Relief began responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our leadership team knew that we were going up against odds with shortages of volunteers, struggles in the economy, high rates of...
From the Heart June 2020Message from CEO Operation BBQ Relief has reflected on our mission during the past few weeks and how we can continue to embody the values that are important to the organization. Operation BBQ Relief provides comfort to those in need by...
From the Heart May 2020Message from CEO Operation BBQ Relief celebrated our 9th Anniversary on May 24th. It was 9 years ago that our pitmaster friends began our first deployment to Joplin, MO following the devastating tornado and served 120,000 hot BBQ meals to local...
From the Heart April 2020Meals served since 20113,422,423 CONNECT, INSPIRE, SERVE, EDUCATE, AND FEED THOSE IN NEED Message from CEO Operation BBQ Relief has been very busy responding the COVID-19 pandemic. The Operation Restaurant Relief (ORR) program has launched in...
From the Heart March 2020Meals served since 20113,178,533 CONNECT, INSPIRE, SERVE, EDUCATE, AND FEED THOSE IN NEED Message from CEO We hope you and your family are doing okay during this difficult time for our country. After discussion with our leadership team,...
From the Heart February 2020Meals served since 20113,057,553 CONNECT, INSPIRE, SERVE, EDUCATE, AND FEED THOSE IN NEED Thank You! Special thanks to our thousands of donors and volunteers that have helped support Operation BBQ Relief since 2011. We are excited to see...
From the Heart January 2020Meals served since 20113,057,553 CONNECT, INSPIRE, SERVE, EDUCATE, AND FEED THOSE IN NEED FROM THE CO-FOUNDERS Wishing You and Your Family a Safe and Happy New Year! Ten years ago OBR was not even a thought! Now we are one of the largest and...
From the Heart End of Year 2019Meals served since 20113,057,553 CONNECT, INSPIRE, SERVE, EDUCATE, AND FEED THOSE IN NEED FROM THE CO-FOUNDERS When folks think about Operation BBQ Relief, the first thing that usually comes to mind is a group of volunteers coming...
From the Heart October 2019Meals served since 20113,052,853 Serving the One Hot Meal that MattersConnect, Inspire, Serve, Educate and Feed Those in NeedFROM THE CO-FOUNDERS We’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate a couple historic milestones that OBR achieved...
From the Heart September 2019Meals served since 20112,964,338 Serving the One Hot Meal that MattersHope, Friendship, Compassion, Connect, Inspire + ServeFROM THE CO-FOUNDERS Many of you have seen social media posts regarding the OBR Volunteers app, Tier 1 and Tier 2...
From the Heart August 2017Meals served since 20112,964,338 Serving the One Hot Meal that MattersHope, Friendship, Compassion, Connect, Inspire + ServeFROM THE CO-FOUNDERS While the U.S. hurricane season generally runs June through November, we’ve historically seen our...
From the Heart July 2019FROM THE CO-FOUNDERS In 2011, OBR began as a group of individuals, just wanting to make a difference in a local community after a devastating tragedy hit. We had no idea at the time how quickly we could go from a group of BBQ fanatics wanting...
From the Heart June 2019 Serving the One Hot Meal that MattersHope, Friendship, Compassion, Connect, Inspire + ServeWelcome to FROM THE HEART the bi-monthly newsletter from Operation BBQ Relief. We hope you enjoy what you find inside and learn more about how OBR helps...
From the Heart May 2019Welcome to FROM THE HEART, the newsletter from Operation BBQ Relief. We hope you enjoy what you find inside and learn more about how OBR helps others after disasters and stay up to date with special events and the special people we meet along...
From the Heart April 2019FROM THE CO-FOUNDERS OBR has been helping communities for almost 8 years. Most of you have only seen what we have done after disaster strikes. Truth be told since early on we have used our cooking talents to help others whether after disaster...
From the Heart November 2017Welcome to FROM THE HEART the bi-monthly newsletter from Operation BBQ Relief. We hope you enjoy what you find inside and learn more about how OBR helps others after disasters and stay up to date with special events and the special people...