A New Haven rabbi is trying to fill a U-Haul truck with non-perishable foods, hygiene products and cleaning supplies to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
"Anybody who sees those pictures can’t help but open their heart," Rabbi Mendy Hecht told NBC Connecticut.
Susan Karp from New Haven’s Westville neighborhood is moved by the images of devastation coming out of the Houston area.
"To see people who’ve worked all their lives, especially older people who’ve worked all their lives and everything is gone," Karp said. "Families with young kids that everything is gone."
On Thursday, Karp went on a shopping run to support her rabbi’s Hurricane Harvey relief collection.
"Baby shampoo, regular shampoo, toothbrushes, adult and children’s, toothpaste soap, hand sanitizers, some food things," she said listing her donations.
Hecht recruited friends in four other cities – Fairfield, Atlanta, Chattanooga and Detroit – to join what he is calling a Convoy of Hope.
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"Thinking about it a little more, I thought that you know what if we could get a whole convoy of trucks to go down from different locations in the country," he said.
Hecht has been in touch with the Jewish community in Houston to help direct where the donations will be distributed once he arrives next week.
"We have some people, who are committed, some bigger commercial establishments that will be giving us some larger quantities of goods," Hecht said. "But we really want this to be an effort from the ground up."
On Friday, you can help fill the Convoy of Hope truck from 8 a.m. until noon at the Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy. The truck will then move to Chapel Street in Wooster Square from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m.
Hecht, along with another driver, plan to leave for Texas on Sunday morning.
