Southwestern Electric Power Company donated five pallets of food to local homeless shelters in Texarkana this week as the utility company wound down its Winter Storm Fern restoration efforts.
The donation to Randy Sams Outreach Shelter and Mission Texarkana included milk and juice cartons, boxed lunches, and trays of hot food that had been prepared for restoration crews working in the area.
SWEPCO had established base camps in Texarkana, Longview, Shreveport and Natchitoches to feed and house thousands of line and forestry workers brought in to restore power during the storm. As crews moved south to areas still needing restoration support, the company closed its northern base camps and donated excess food rather than letting it go to waste.
“We also partnered with Randy Sams Outreach Shelter and Mission Texarkana to make use of excess food that otherwise would have been wasted,” said Lisa Thompson, SWEPCO’s external affairs manager for the Texarkana District. “We are grateful for the opportunity to support these organizations that take care of community members experiencing homelessness year-round.”
The utility company also provided hot meals to local fire, police and other first responders in Texarkana on Tuesday. In Longview, seven additional pallets of food were donated to Newgate Mission.
SWEPCO restored power to most customers affected by Winter Storm Fern, bringing outages down from 70,000 at the storm’s peak to less than 2,000 by Thursday noon. The company brought in restoration teams from across the nation to repair hundreds of miles of damaged power lines.