KENTUCKY (FOX 56) – As eastern Kentucky communities start to build back from the floods many of the residents that are now without a home are being met with support from across the nation.

Whether it be relief organizations or independent businesses wanting to give back.

Willie Ray’s Q-Shack is one business giving out free meals to flood victims.

“About a thousand meals a day, since Sunday,” Frank Orr, a Willie’s crewmember, told FOX 56.

The employees of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa business knows how a flood can ravage a community all too well.

“We had a flood back in ‘08 and it was devastating just as well as it is here and just seeing the smiles and knowing that people care and are happy the fact you came and supplied something and drove so far to be here and like I said we love it. This is what we do,” Willie Fairley, Owner of Willie Ray’s Q Shack told FOX 56.

Skyler Henderson is another cooking volunteer who made the drive from Mississippi.

“I asked if I could come up here and they was like yeah, so I want to come help out some people in need,” he said.

Since Sunday, from a Jackson shopping center parking lot, they’ve fired up the grill starting at 4 a.m. serving any and all.

“I sure am grateful for all the people that are helping and cooking these meals. It’s a blessing,” Breathitt County flood victim Christine Dunn told FOX 56. Dunn is now living in a camper. Before the floods, she was living in the home her parents had bought when she was just two years old.

“The first time it’d ever been in that house, the water. About a foot deep, it destroyed about everything I had,” she said. “It’s been sad to leave my home, you know? It’s just sad.”

The nearby grocery stores are also helping with supplies. The crew has traveled to disasters from hurricanes to the western Kentucky tornados and is ready to keep giving.    

All of these meals are the product of donations. They are in the process of applying for 501c3 status but if you would like to donate now there is a Venmo account set up and you can donate from the details below.

@willieraysqshack

Willie Fairley

Code # 3806