IMPORTANT REQUEST - Drop Off and Current Needs Update

To everyone helping support the Haiti Relief Efforts,

First, thank you for helping the people of Haiti. As you can imagine, North Alabama remains an incredibly generous community. With the outpouring of support, our ability to come by every drop off point that has been established by many volunteers is difficult. We are asking that each of the collection sites bring their donations to one of the primary collection points listed below. This will allow for volunteers to spend their time sorting and packing material for transportation to Haiti.

Our request is that all contributions be taken directly to one of the Primary Collection Points:

UMC Disaster Relief Warehouse
(Location: Decatur, AL - Must follow instructions to get there. Online maps take you to the wrong location.)
Directions:
Take I-565 to I-65 South
Exit 334 West (Priceville) off I-65
Go 3.2 Miles turn left on Highway 31 South
Go 1.0 mile turn left between the Ford dealerships two car lots (Joe Sartain Ford)
Behind Joe Sartain Ford, go past the first warehouse and turn right.
Go around the building and the UMC Disaster Relief Warehouse is in building R.
Phone: (256) 642-1759
Hours for drop off: 9am-4pm CT

Trinity United Methodist Church
607 Airport Road Southwest
Huntsville, AL 35802-1310
(256) 883-3200

Good Shepherd UMC
1418 Old Railroad Bed Rd.
Madison, AL 35757
(256) 232-3331‎

HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
601 Genome Way
Huntsville, AL 35806-2908
(256) 327-0400

Medical supplies still remain the highest priority items and through donations and discounted purchasing agreements we are able to fulfill these requests, so your cash contributions help directly in purchasing the physicians’ and nurses’ requests. Trinity United Methodist Church has provided the management of these donations. Please make checks payable to Trinity UMC and mark these donations for Haiti Relief.

These challenging times that the Haitian people face, and the logistics of getting resources into the country are ever changing. Troy Moore and our first flight from Huntsville arrived in country today. The next flights are being lined up currently to get the highest priority items out in the coming days.

You thoughts, prayers and understanding as we get these flights arranged are appreciated. We will continue to update the http://haitifooddrive.blogspot.com website with our activities. If there is not a post for a few hours, please know that is because we are running as hard as we can to line up these shipments.

Finally, I wanted to specifically state what our current needs are:

Items currently needed:

1. Medical supplies that are being requested.
2. Dry food goods – beans, rice and anything that is light and can be reconstituted with water.
   

Items NOT needed at this time:

1. Bottled water – water needs are being met through water purification systems (First flight today carried ten of these units).
2. Canned goods
3. Clothing
   

All of the items that have been donated will be shipped, but our collective mission is to focus on what they relief workers need on the ground. These priorities will continue to change over time and we will do our best to keep these request updated. All food shipments are being coordinated through a group that we have had great success with, and enjoyed working with previously, called Food For The Poor, http://www.foodforthepoor.org.

Sincerely,
Brian and Luke

Questions: email us at haitifooddrive@gmail.com
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