I imagine we were all shocked and saddened by the news of small rural communities devastated by Hurricane Helene. But even more shocking was to see the human tragedy of a natural disaster turn into a political issue, and then be quickly pushed aside by the media for the next high profile sound bite. With hundreds of people still missing, the news cycle was already off on the next big thing.

Despite that, real people on the ground were hard at work, and one gave us a chance to share some Yumbini love. We received the following heartfelt letter via one of our online partners, Garage Grown Gear. It is from a fellow packaged food producer who sells on the same site. She is appealing to all of Garage Grown Gear’s food brands for help providing good quality meals for Hurricane Helene relief:

“Hi Y’all,

My name is Hope Westall and I am the founder of Alt Route Meals. We are based in Knoxville, TN, and like you, produce a lineup of dehydrated meals. I am reaching out to you all today to ask for help for the Northeast Tennessee and Western North Carolina regions of our country.
As all of you know, a massive storm system attached to Hurricane Helene absolutely wrecked this region a little over a week ago and the aftermath is beyond catastrophic. Here in Knoxville, we were okay, thanks to the dams that somehow held the unbelievable volumes of water back, but our neighbors to the north and east were not so fortunate. Aside from the property damage to people’s homes, small businesses, and community hubs there is an unprecedented ongoing search and rescue operation all over the mountains still looking for over 1,000 people that are unaccounted for still.

Despite the horrible things that people are dealing with, the south is a magical place. There is a resilience to the people that call these mountains home. There is a sense of togetherness and a sense of knowing that we will put in the work to revive these communities that still have a little hope left right now.

Here is why I am reaching out to all of you. As a small business owner who spends a lot of time balancing the books month by month, I don’t have the resources to give as much as I would like to the efforts to get good quality food in people’s hands. Honestly, what we are capable of giving wouldn’t be more than a drop in the bucket. But I know that there is power in numbers. I ran the math and if every single food company that partners with GGG made a commitment to send 50 meals to this region to help out, that would be 1,550 meals. That is significant. That would make an impact. That would matter.

These meals would be going directly into backpacks and into packs on mule trains that are headed into the mountains led by groups of volunteers that have showed up to put in the physical work to get to the most remote parts of these mountain communities. The ones that are going to be the last to get help. To the poor communities that don’t have the resources of the bigger cities.

While some of you may have never visited this region personally, I would almost guarantee that someone has purchased your meals to take on their AT Section or Thru hike, use for their family getaway in the Great Smoky Mountains NP, their boating trip down the Pegion, French Broad or Noilchucky Rivers. Aside from the destruction in towns and cities, the recreation in this region will NEVER be the same again. I am asking you to stand up and show support for this region and all that it has done for our companies.

Thanks for reading this and I look forward to working with each one of you to do some good for the people of the Southeast!”

After reading Hope’s letter, Aki and I felt the request for 50 meals was quite modest and that we could do more. We agreed to immediately send her four cases each of our four Yumbini flavors (224 meals).

In an email confirming the “Yumbini love” had arrived in Tennessee, Hope said: “Thank you SO much for being a part of this. That delivery is going out this weekend! There will be tons of families that benefit from y’all’s support! We appreciate you going above and beyond with so many meals as well!”

Thank YOU Hope, for getting the ball rolling with your beautiful letter! I invented Yumbini to help people. And you offered a way to do that in a real and substantial way. How exciting to think of 224 strangers on the opposite side of the country with bellies full of Yumbini and smiles on their faces! It feels very good to put our common humanity and Yumbini love ahead of politics and division.