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When BWH sleep research technologist Karen Stevenson first thought about volunteering for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in New Orleans, she had no idea that would involve cooking dinner for 40 students for an entire week.
“I’ve never cooked for more than 10 people at a time,” said Stevenson, who was connected through friends to students from the University of Rhode Island and St. Michael’s College volunteering through a Christian group to help rebuild houses.
Stevenson, who has worked in the Sleep Disorders Program at BWH for eight years, planned menus and prepared grocery lists for meals like chili, chicken broccoli and ziti, black-eyed peas and ham. She prepped for dinners during the day while the students were out working, enabling them to focus on their mission without worrying about meals. She also spent one day herself helping with the rebuilding.
While much of downtown New Orleans is rebuilt, Stevenson said that the inner city, where she stayed, is still ravaged from the hurricane that devastated the city in 2005. “In the inner city, which is only 10 minutes from downtown, only 15 to 20 percent of people have returned to their homes,” she said. “Most of the houses remain in the same condition the hurricane left them in, and the schools have been torn down.”
Stevenson and the students stayed in a warehouse turned into a community center by Louisiana natives Charles and Judy Dillon to provide food, showers and other necessities for those in need. Stevenson and the students also hosted a “lunch outreach,” handing out bread and other food to anyone driving or walking by the center. “The kids were so eager for it,” she said. “Not only did they need the food, they really appreciated the attention and the knowledge that people cared.”
Stevenson said that those who live in the area were encouraged by groups coming to help rebuild. “They need hope and to know that they have not been forgotten,” she said.
Karen Stevenson and the students she cooked for gather around the table.