Foundation offers Helene relief to food and beverage workers

To provide immediate relief to food and beverage workers who live or work in local impacted areas of Hurricane Helene, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation is partnering with Houston-based Southern Smoke Foundation to raise funds to deploy a rapid response.

Gulf Coast will distribute the funds to the areas of greatest need identified with life-sustaining support as a top priority. As many food and beverage workers live paycheck to paycheck, bridge funding provided by Southern Smoke Foundation and local donors to Gulf Coast will help full the gap until government support is available, the foundation says. 

Individuals may receive up to $1,000, and families may be eligible for up to $1,200. 

“We have a history of providing immediate, life-sustaining support to those most in need after disasters,” Gulf Coast President and CEO Phillip Lanham says. “We know that the local food and beverage industry was significantly impacted by Hurricane Helene and supporting our community in times of need is why we exist. Together, we will rebuild and recover."

The Southern Smoke Foundation has granted more than $13 million to food and beverage workers nationwide, and since 2020 has provided more than 5,800 no-cost counseling sessions to workers and their children in select states.

Southern Smoke provides a simple application at SouthernSmoke.org. It outlines requirements for funding, assigning all applicants to a case manager for support.

Those interested in donating to Gulf Coast’s Rapid Response Fund can do so online at GulfCoastCF.org/rapidresponsefund.

This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.