BATON ROUGE - In addition to 615,000 meals provided to Louisiana citizens by the American Red Cross, 227,000 by the Salvation Army, and tens of thousands more by faith-based and non-profit groups across the state, Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis announced today that, through Thursday, a state task force delivered 428,000 hot meals in 15 parishes impacted by severe power outages since Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana on September 1.

With a shortage of Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs) reported in the days after Gustav passed through the state, and in partnership with the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the Pastors Resource Council, Governor Bobby Jindal created a task force to provide hot meals to people in heavily impacted parishes.

Through Thursday, by contracting with Louisiana restaurants, caterers, and food distributors, the task force had served 428,000 hot meals at an average cost per meal of $6.53, saving between $372,360 and $629,160 compared to the cost of a comparable number of MREs, whose unit costs range between $7.40 and $8.00.

"While we seek to provide the best service to our citizens after a disaster, it is also important that we take steps to do so in a fiscally responsible manner," said Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis. "When power outages posed a serious threat to the food supply, we mobilized to help our citizens get not only a better meal than an MRE but one that cost less. We are grateful to our faith-based community partners and to the businesses that stepped up and answered the call to provide hundreds of thousands of meals, at short notice, to our fellow citizens in a time of need."

Businesses that participated in the program include: Aramark, BRG Catering LLC/John Besh, Belle Foods, Cajun Kettle, John Folse, Papa Murphy, Piccadilly, and "We're Cooking."

Parishes in which the state task force provided hot meals: Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson, Lafouche, Livingston, Orleans, Pointe Coupee, St. James, St. John, Terrebonne, West Baton Rouge, West Feliciana

With continuing restoration of power, the task force's hot meal program ended yesterday.

Louisiana's universities and the Department of Education also partnered with Sodexo, Inc., Unique Cuisine, Bigeon Catering, and Aramark to provide meals to our citizens.

For the latest information on hurricanes Gustav and Ike, visit emergency.louisiana.gov.