We've been checking on the Gluten Free Food Pantry at "Mission Joplin" (otherwise known as the bus barn at Forest park Baptist Church) every day.

I've discovered three people working as volunteers there that are really familiar with gluten free. The young couple who are overseeing Mission Joplin must be gluten free and there was another young man who asked me if he could help me when I went up to the gf shelves and when i explained that I was there to check to make sure there were enough gluten free products he told me that his sister was Celiac with very serious reactions to gluten.

So i feel little better that the gluten free foods are going to those who really need them. So many folks are sending these special foods to us for the devastated Joplin Celiacs.

And my oh my,but it is so devastating when you drive through town. The church is at the other end of town from our home and so since they have cleared all the major roads I try to come home a different way each time. So very many of our landmarks are gone. Three schools are gone and at least a couple others are damaged. So very many businesses are just nowhere to be found. I think many of the larger businesses are going to rebuild but many of the smaller businesses are not . It will surely impact the make up of the city. There are so many things I could talk on about the tornado and how it is affecting the people of Joplin but this is really a gluten free blog and not a Joplin tornado blog so i will give you a break. But I must say it consumes our thoughts much of the time.

A couple of days ago a lady called and she was worried about her 72 yr old friend who had been out trying to sift through the rubble that had once been his brother and sister in laws home. He has Celiac disease and told her of the service groups and churches that are taking all kinds of foods around to people in what once were neighborhoods but of course he could not eat any of that. She had heard our announcement on the radio and wondered if we could take him some gluten free food to snack on while he was trying to recover some of his families possessions. I fixed a small box and Mike went over to try to find the address that the lady had given us. He could not find Oscar (the mans name) and he said, "Rita you just don't understand what it was like over there and it's all rubble and you can't tell one house from another."  I worried about that man and went myself the next morning. And just as it was with Mike, I could not find him. Sure hope he was able to get some gf snacks on his own. It makes me so sad to think of all this food that folks have shared and that man not being able to have some.

Well tomorrow is another day and we will do the best we can to help those who need us.

Good night all,  Rita