(CNN) After five members of her family died in the Alabama tornadoes, Makitha Griffin couldn't just pick up and leave.

Griffin has been feeding first responders in Lee County, Alabama, since Monday as they continue searching for the missing and help those who lost their homes.

"At the end of the day it was so many other people that needed to be healed," Griffin said.

Makitha Griffin

Relatives from both her parents' families died when a series of powerful tornadoes swept through the region on Sunday.

Her aunts Florel Tate Stenson, 63, and Tresia Robinson, 62; her uncles Henry Lewis Stenson, 65, and Raymond Robinson Jr., 63; and her cousin 38-year-old Eric Jamal Stenson were among the nearly two dozen victims of the tornadoes.

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