30,000 Southern Baptist Convention Volunteers Trained in Disaster Relief Ready to Mobilize.

ATLANTA -- Southern Baptist Convention:

--Infrastructure Going in Place to Immediately Prepare an Estimated 300,000 Meals or More Per Day to Gulf Coast Communities Affected by Hurricane Katrina -- Could Escalate to More Than 500,000 Meals Per Day in Coming Weeks

--Disaster Relief Support Donations Needed

--More Than 1,200 Trained Southern Baptist Volunteers Already Active in Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama; More than 135 Southern Baptist Units (Feeding, Recovery, Shower, Communication) Activated, 100s More to Follow in Coming Days

The Southern Baptist Convention's Disaster Relief volunteer network, the third largest disaster relief organization in the United States, has engaged its 30,000 trained volunteers to work a massive operation of direct field support of the FEMA, American Red Cross and Salvation Army operations serving the communities of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama affected by the disasters following Hurricane Katrina.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief will be providing 300,000 meals per day by this weekend in service to Hurricane Katrina victims in the affected areas. This number could quickly escalate to more than 500,000 meals per day in coming weeks.

"This undertaking is unprecedented in its scope," said Bob Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. "We have trained volunteers going into the disaster areas throughout the Southeast in an operation of massive scale, never seen before in the United States. We are appealing for financial support from every community across the nation to accomplish our mission as we bring food and humanitarian relief to our fellow Americans affected by this tragedy."

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is a non-profit ministry made up of approximately 30,000 trained volunteers from Southern Baptist Convention churches across the United States and Canada. The organization has agreements to work in tandem with FEMA, American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and Mercy Medical Airlift.

The organization stands ready to mobilize as many as 30,000 trained volunteers from 600 Disaster Relief units throughout North America to respond to the Gulf Coast crisis, both directly in disaster affected areas, and locally in their communities.

Those wishing to donate to the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Fund can visit www.namb.net or phone toll-free 1-888-571-5895 or send checks to PO Box 116543, Atlanta, GA 30368-6543 (make checks payable to North American Mission Board).

Photographs of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief activity in the Hurricane Katrina response can be downloaded at www.namb.net/drphotos.

For more information about these efforts, Nationally or locally in any community, please contact the following:

Alabama: http://www.alsbom.org 1-800-264-1225

Arkansas: http://www.absc.org 501-376-4791

Louisiana: http://www.lbc.org 318-448-3402

National: www.namb.net/dr 1-800-462-8657 ext. 6133