By RACHEL HARRIS

DESTREHAN – Rice and sausage feed the masses better than any gift of fish and loaves if you ask lifelong St. Charles Parish resident and mother of five, Erin Chaisson.

Chaisson’s brother, Shawn Bradley, founded the Gumbo Crew “to provide relief to the relief” following the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. After calling around and connecting to New York Police Commissioner Smith, the Gumbo Crew was allowed to drive right into Ground Zero. The Louisiana group was interested in providing a hot meal to the rescue workers in New York.

“This could have happened anywhere. New York just had the tallest buildings,” Chaisson said. “We didn’t just bring food. We brought love. It’s so much more than food.”

The Gumbo Crew visited New York expecting to feed 300 people. The resulting affect multiplied to 3,000 people. The experience truly was a fish and loaves incident, Chaisson said.

“We serve our country by serving our country,” according to the official Gumbo Crew motto.

When New Yorkers invited the Gumbo Crew back, the group made a second trip in October, feeding over 70,000. Chaisson attended this time.

“I literally walked into Ground Zero, the ‘Pit of Hell,’ as they called it,” Chaisson said.

Chaisson’s role as the party favor queen, as she calls herself, led her to invite area schools to get involved. Children decorated bags with small gifts of chapstick, candy and gum for the policemen and firemen at Ground Zero.

Chaisson said the workers could not believe children all the way in Louisiana were helping.

“This state way down south really cared about them,” she said.

The response from New Yorkers warmed Chaisson’s

heart. Policemen on the corners were wearing Mardi Gras beads, she said. Chaisson commented that it was truly a religious and life-changing experience.

The Gumbo Crew returned to New York again in December for a third visit, this time feeding the Secret Servicemen and FBI as well. This time, area students sent holiday ornaments to the Ground Zero workers.

The Gumbo Crew continues to feed the protectors of our free country. It has cooked for local volunteer fireman and raised funds for thermal imaging devices for Abita Springs Fire Deparment. The Gumbo Crew prepared gumbo for the Air National Guard in Belle Chase for the disbanding ceremony after a 100-day no fly zone protection mission in Turkey. Chaisson is proud that the Crew was the first civilians asked to feed the military. Plaques were also presented to the Crew and the soldiers.

The Marines caught wind of the Crew and invited them to cook for America’s 911 Force 26 Marine Expeditionary Unit. Kids from local schools made planters with red, white and blue flowers to send to the soldiers through the “Sprout Freedom Program,” organized by Chaisson. Adults and kids wrote thank you notes as well.

Chaisson’s personal goal was to increase the mail call for all military servicemen, thanking and consoling them. She found that mail call was really important to the soldiers after conducting her own personal interviews with military men and women in the airports between trips to and from New York.

Chaisson’s full-time job has become the Gumbo Crew, but that’s not all she does. She is the full-time mother of her five children Jean-Paul, 9, Etienne, 8, Simone, 7, Christophe, 5, and Sophie, 1. Chaisson and her husband, Paul, a flight attendant, remain involved with their children’s schools while balancing the responsibilities of gumbo service. She doesn’t have the chance to cook often, Chaisson said, while expressing how much her family has sacrificed to support the relief.

Chaisson is a graduate of Country Day and attended St. Charles Catholic, and Sacred Heart. She grew up in Norco and has lived in the parish her whole life. She is “born and bred St. Charles,” as she puts it.

Chaisson finds that the hardest part of it all is balancing everything. Balance is her new focus, she said.

The Gumbo Crew meets on first Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. at the Good Hope Street location.