To say "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is truly a community effort is no understatement. From building supplies to manpower and even who's going to feed all these volunteers will be up to the local folks to handle.
When the ABC feel-good reality show rolls into Knoxville for almost a week and a half next month, it will bring a lot of mouths to feed. Hundreds of hungry volunteers, working around the clock, will have their stomachs filled by local companies and groups stepping up to the plate, almost literally.
"The generosity of the community is astounding," says Gay Lyons, who is coordinating the massive effort to feed the volunteers.
The community is expected to provide meals at 6 p.m., 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. daily plus snacks will be available 24 hours a day. Yet Lyons is finding the pieces of puzzle of who's doing what and when is coming together. "For me, it was like putting together a giant puzzle that had no pieces," she says. "Then, little by little, we put it together (albeit) with some missing pieces."
As word got out that hundreds of volunteers needed to be fed on site, local companies responded fairly quickly.
While dozens of companies and groups are volunteering to provide meals for the round-the-clock building effort of a Knoxville home, a few notable companies have gone above and beyond. Donating a night's worth of meals are Holiday Inn Downtown, Pellissippi State Community College Culinary Institute, Parkwest Hospital. University of Tennessee Culinary Institute is doing one of the large 6 p.m. meals.
Pepsi, Green Mountain and Sysco, which is providing a refrigerated truck, are also among the major donors.
Around 30 feeding times are being filled, translating into 3,800 individual meals, between Jan. 10 to 19, Lyons says. The number does not include snacks.
Not all the providers are large restaurants or outlets in the food industry. Some are churches, insurance companies and such, all eager to do what they can to feed the building machine, as it were.
The effort is also trying to be kind to the environment. Cups, plates and utensils that can be recycled will be used.
A catering company provided by "Extreme Makeover" will have breakfast and lunch for volunteers each day.
Lyons has a chart to keep up with which providers will bring food on the schedule.
"When I look at the chart, it's an amazing cross-section of the hospitality industry locally," she says.
"It's everything from chains such as Subway, Penera, McDonald's, Salsaritas, Papa Johns and Pizza Hut ... but we also have local places.
"One of the first to step up was a place called Love That BBQ on Maryville Pike."
Terry Morrow may be reached at 865-342-6445 or morrowt@knoxville.com.
© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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