ORANGE — It has definitely been busy at the Salvation Army in Orange and they wouldn’t have it any other way as it has been a main distribution stop for many folks across Orange County, whether it be food, drinks or supplies.

Groups from across the country have arrived at the Salvation Army to help, including a tremendous group from the Wisconsin area.

David Peterson is leading the group from Wisconsin and they are so glad to lend a helpful hand.

“We just have a compassion for life and to serve people that are in dire need right now,” said Peterson. “We’ve done this before, we did it when Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area. To just help people and to see them smile, despite going through such a tough time really has shown us what Southeast Texas is all about. There are hard-working people in this area and you can tell they have the will to bounce back from this.”

Peterson said he and eight others came down from Wisconsin to aid and said there could be 10 to 12 more.

The group was currently building a 40-foot chicken trough to help with the cooking of the chicken for the rest of the week.

“We just want to do everything we can to help the Orange area out,” said Peterson. “We’ve heard so many stories about the ordeals that people went through during the storm itself. We’ve heard so many emotional highs and emotional lows. We know that the stress levels are high at times and if we can be part of the relief effort to help make people feel better, that just warms our hearts.”

The Salvation Army served up a little more than 600 meals on Tuesday and expected to serve even more Wednesday as supplies continue to filter in.

Starting at 1 p.m. Wednesday, The Salvation Army will provide boxes of food prepacked to feed a family for several days, as well as cases of bottled water.

Frankie Zuniga of The Salvation Army-Orange was extremely grateful from all the support around the country.

“The group from Wisconsin has been amazing and we’re so glad to have them all week,” said Zuniga. “There are groups from Louisiana and Colorado, they call themselves The Pioneers, that are also offering their tremendous services.”

The Salvation Army is going to be a main hub of food and supplies for the coming days for sure.

“We’re so happy about the United Way of Orange and their support of helping getting food and supplies here,” said Zuniga. “We’re going to have plenty of food we think for days to come. Our main focus right now is that supplies or low, especially cleaning supplies. The more we can get of those, the better.”