The mission of Operation BBQ Relief is to provide compassion and to offer hope and friendship to those whose lives have been affected by disasters across the United States through our expertise in cooking and catering barbecue meals and our ability to quickly mobilize our teams into any area where nature disrupts and tears apart the lives of Americans. SHOESTRING assessed the young nonprofit’s best opportunity to gain local news coverage to build awareness with the public on its mission and to help seek volunteers and donations. That opportunity by our team was identified and executed around the holidays of 2012. Operation BBQ Relief spent part of the holidays serving people with no place to go for Christmas. Homeless guests in the City Union Mission shelter in Kansas City, MO, were being treated to lunch and dinner cooked and prepared by competition barbecue pitmasters who are volunteers with Operation BBQ Relief. Over 1,000 free meals were served and their story sparked local TV news station KCTV5 to interview and broadcast the event. View the video above and see this story at KCTV5.com