Agape House Director Dave Hughes said his organization is facing higher demand with less coming in.

Agape House, The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross are in line for a big boost in their food supplies.

The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program has offered to donate 15,000 MREs, or meals ready-to-eat.

Umatilla County Assistant Emergency Manager Bill Howard announced the plan during a county commissioners meeting recently.

MREs are self-contained meals commonly used by the military. Howard said they come in many varieties with a main course, side dishes, desserts, drinks, utensils and condiments.

CSEPP has the 15,000 meals stored in shelters and schools in Umatilla and Morrow counties ready in case of a chemical emergency. They were purchased in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and had a nine-year shelf life. Because the end of that shelf life is approaching, CSEPP ordered a new batch of MREs (which are paid for with federal dollars) and is planning to ship out the old ones before they go bad.

And they’ll ship them to the shelves of the Agape House, the Salvation Army and the Red Cross. The first two organizations plan to disburse the meals to those who come asking for help.

Agape House Director Dave Hughes said his organization is facing higher demand with less coming in. He said this will also help him to distribute food to places other than Hermiston, such as Ukiah, Stanfield and Milton-Freewater.

The Red Cross will use the meals to help people who are recovering from emergencies, such as after a house fire. Disaster Specialist Sharon Neuvirth said it will help the Red Cross help people for more than the standard three days of assistance.

“We’re expecting an increase in house fires this winter and an increase in disasters here,” she said. “This would allow us to give more assistance there and not add to that burden.”

Hughes said he guessed with the need Agape House is facing, the MREs could be off the shelves and used up by the end of the year.

“We’re looking at a very short time period,” he said.

Howard said CSEPP will be ready to load up the old MREs as soon as the paper work goes through and the new ones come in, which may occur around mid-November.