Baked Relief Update - Saturday & Sunday

Monitor twitter @digellabakes and @melkettle #bakedrelief as requests are coming through all the time.

We are all doing an amazing job providing Baked Relief around South East Qld.

I have been operating on very little sleep. I am running Baked Relief and nothing else from 5am each day until at least 1am each morning. There are just so many emails, (150+ per day) tweets (1 every 2 minutes), phone calls (numerous) to answer.

My boys are STILL isolated, but they may be able to get out this afternoon. The water is gone, its the damage to the bridges which is the problem. My poor Mum deserves a medal! They are safe and have a bit more food now, electricity is still off (that's 6 days)
Our family holiday (first holiday in four years) was due today. But alas, we can not go because my boys are away. I am crying as I type this because I have spent 6 months planning this holiday with the children.
SLAP SLAP!
That was me slapping myself across the face!
I need to keep busy - and Baked Relief is doing just that!
But I just cant do everything.
I need to keep this movement going, but I need your help.

How can you help?

As the clean up is moving around the city and as each section is cleaned up, the crew move on, so unfortunately I am half a day behind on locations.

Or give to the cause HERE where we plan to provide ongoing food packs to families in need and in the Lockyer Valley where it is really needed. Many farms have lost all food due to no power since Monday.

Where it matters - The residents

I need my army (you) to travel to a suburb close to you which has been affected.  Find some volunteers and / or some people who have been affected by the flood and are cleaning up and provide some baked cheer to them. I can honestly tell you, delivering a treat to those who have been affected has been the most FANTASTIC part of this project for my army.

I get many emails / messages of support and thanks, here are just a few from last night

From Volunteering Qld: "that meal was the highlight of our week"

From a New Farm resident cleaning up: "to a wonderful girl who gave us homemade scones when we were cleaning a flooded house in new farm: thankyou, you made our day! #bakedrelief"

From someone handing out Baked Relief: "Giving something so small and seeing the smile on the residents face was enough for me to survive for a week"

From a resident in Fairfield: "It is great to know we aren't forgotten, #bakedrelief made us smile on a very dark day"

~~
Load up your baking, try and carpool to reduce traffic on the road
Slap on some suncream
Have everything on disposable plates, already portioned. (very important)
Grab some serviettes and hand sanitizer
Go to an affected area and find a street of people working to clean their homes
Throw a big smile on your face and tell them you are bringing Baked Relief to help them keep going.
DONT UNDERESTIMATE HOW MUCH THIS MEANS TO PEOPLE!

These are some of the affected suburbs/locations who have specifically contacted me for help:

Moray Street, New Farm
Goodna
Rocklea
Yeronga
Fairfield
Chelmer
Fig Tree Pocket
Jindalee
Wacol

Full list of suburbs HERE

Head to the area, find people and give. If they already have enough Baked Relief, move to another location. We can help these residents and volunteers smile!

HUBS

So these are the locations for Volunteering Hubs which you can drop off your treats too as well. Make sure it is already portioned!

SHERWOOD - plumer Street, best access from southside via Fairfield Road.

WEST END - cnr Melbourne & Boundry Roads

FAIRFIELD - vnr Venner and Fairfield Roads

GRACEVILLE - Cnr White Street and Verney Road

YERONGA - The Esplanade (down by the river)

BUILIMBA - Oxford Street

And there are more, but I just dont have the details on them at the moment and as you can imagine, this is a moving feast!

ME
I beg that you refrain from emailing me with questions today (unless you really need support on a project we are working on together) Because I really need to get out there too and deliver some stuff to my friends who have been affected too. I also have a cold room full of stuff to coordinate the distribution of and will be away from the computer most of the day. We are also continuing to provide all meals to Volunteering Qld head office who are managing all the calls! 22,000 calls THIS WEEK! And Baked Relief is keeping them going. YAY! (if you can provide a healthy lunch or dinner for 20-25 people and drop to the CBD please tweet or email me as I am still working on getting these guys fed!)

Monitor twitter @digellabakes or @melkettle #bakedrelief as requests are coming through all the time.

Twitter is how I will update anything I know during the day. Tweet me if you know an area in need or if the area has enough and I will retweet it out to the army of Baked Relief crew :)

I am so sorry I can not email everyone back directly just at the moment, but I need to focus on what I can do. But make sure you seed fan mail, as we always love that!

I am sorry this email is all over the place... just relecting my brain at present. Please understand. I am doing the absolute best I can.

FUNDS

We have raised almost $1,000 towards this cause. I will let you know our plans for these funds in the coming days.

And my parting note today on our biggest Baked Relief day:

If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito...