If there’s one thing the world has been reminded of in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, it’s that when it comes to human lives and suffering, people respond.

When women in the Chabad community in Houston, Texas, saw what was going on around them, they took immediate action. Working existing networks and building on each other’s strengths, the women of the community reached out to each other and coalesced into a grass-roots humanitarian organization—one that has yet to slow down.

Eta Cotler, who lives near the main Chabad center on Fondren Road, where many of the relief efforts were centered, says “as soon as we could leave our houses, we did one of the things Jewish mothers do best: feed people.”

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In the first few days, hundreds of meals were arranged through word of mouth and quick response on a Chabad women’s WhatsApp group.

“A family needs eight meals,” was posted on the group, and within minutes came an offer of salmon, another had salad, someone else gave cookies, and someone volunteered to collect the items and deliver them.

“Everybody contributed what they had,” relates Cotlar. “Once I could drive on the roads, I went to a dollar store to collect supplies. There were rows of penne pasta, so that’s what we worked with. It was chaos, but I think being women gave us the skills to handle it. How many times do we find out on a Friday that we have six more guests for Shabbat dinner? When that happens, we don’t collapse. We pull out another chicken.

“We needed that same attitude working in the soup kitchen that we set up at Chabad,” she continues. “In the days right after the storm, with limited supplies, help and time, we needed to prepare 300 meals by noon, and then a group of stragglers would wander in needing to eat. We couldn’t collapse. We just got more food.”