About Us

The vision vision for Mercy Chefs was born while R. Gary LeBlanc was leading Operation Blessing’s mobile kitchen on its maiden voyage in the days after Hurricane Katrina. The call to feed people and share the hope of better days to come led him to a point in the midst of this horrific disaster where a passion to provide high quality and professionally prepared meals to victims, volunteers and first responders was birthed.  Mercy Chefs was founded 9 months later to bring volunteers and industry professionals together, with the most efficient equipment available, in a way no one had done before.  

The call to provide comfort and compassion in disasters dates to Gary’s remembrance as a child in New Orleans of Hurricanes Betsy and Camille. The power of hospitality and a shared meal is a legacy of his Cajun roots and the influence of watching his grandmothers as they fed family, friends and strangers alike. Mercy Chefs is dedicated to the call to go feed people with the evidence of God's love and a message of grace and mercy.   

Gary has over 29 years experience in the hospitality industry, from busboy to hotel General Manager, beginning in New Orleans and continuing to 4 and 5 star resorts and conference centers Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia. He is the Founder and President of Mercy Chefs, a faith based disaster relief agency that fed over 38,000 people in 2008 in five states. Gary met the Lord in 1974 as a high school senior and was ordained in 2007 as a Minister at New Life Providence Church in Virginia Beach. Currently the general manager and managing partner of a Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton in Chesapeake Virginia, Chef Gary has dedicated himself to the call to go feed people with the evidence of God's love and a message of grace and mercy.  

Mercy Chefs Dave VanAbel(Wisconsin), Curt Hencye(Florida), Walter Taylor(Virginia), Herman Mosely(North Carolina) and Debbie Lowe(Georgia) join volunteers from each of their home states and in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, California, Colorado, New York, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. We have served in disaster responses in New York, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Virginia and Mississippi. 
 

And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.  John 6:35 

If you've been skipping spiritual meals lately, you may feel hungry--or famished. Don't settle for anything less than the Bread of Life. ~Dr. David Jerimiah