Salvation Army emergency response crews will head to the east coast Saturday morning to assist families affected by Hurricane Matthew.

  • Hot meals will be supplied for Matthew victims
  • Goal is to provide comfort during time of need
  • If you'd like to help or volunteer, see below

For the past few days, staff members have closely monitored Matthew from the Emergency Disaster Office and Warehouse in Tampa. They’ve packed supplies and filled their mobile feeding units with food and water to take into communities dealing with damage.

"Each of our mobile feeding units has the capacity to do about 1,500 meals, and those are hot meals," Director of Emergency Disaster Services Kevin Smith said. "Things you would do in your kitchen at home, and the idea is in the time of chaos as this storm goes by and people's lives have been up-rooted, shattered, they have a little bit of comfort."

The field kitchens are able to prepare meals that are distributed to dozens of mobile canteens that will be spread out along the coast.

As families start to move forward, Major David Erickson will be traveling up and down the state, checking on his crews and community members to make sure they have support.

"We try to be there to help people in their lowest point and time of need. We don't know when that's going to happen, but not everyone has the resources to prepare for storms for multiple days," Erickson said.

Salvation Army officials said that if you’re interested, the best way to help survivors and relief workers is to make a financial contribution.

Monetary donations allow disaster responders to immediately meet the specific needs of disaster survivors as the needs are assessed. The Salvation Army asks people who want to help those directly affected by the storm to visit http://give.salvationarmyusa.org/hurricane_matthew, call 1-800-SAL-ARMY or text STORM to 51555.

To become a volunteer, please visit www.salvationarmytampabay.org to contact your local Salvation Army unit for details.