Just hours after an EF-3 tornado leveled part of Selmer, Tennessee, Jamil Patterson grabbed his four daughters and niece and hit the road to serve up kindness and a hot meal.
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00:00I sell food every day and so I said I'm not selling nothing today. I'm not selling nothing.
00:05I'm going to get some waters and yield. Under a canopy of torrential rain lies a beacon of hope.
00:12Jamil Patterson with his four daughters and niece in tow drove an hour north from their hometown
00:18of Rienzi, Mississippi to help people they've never met but knew could use a kind heart.
00:24I hadn't gone through this but I can just imagine the experience of not having
00:30no food or anything you know. There was a time where I didn't have power for some days so I was
00:36cooking on the grill but if you don't have anything that's terrible you know I could just imagine.
00:43On April 3rd, under the cloak of darkness, the high-end twister leveled many parts of
00:47this historic town. More than two dozen people were injured, several people died,
00:53and crews from around Tennessee and neighboring states jumped into action. Jamil got the word
00:58out by making a Facebook post and his daughters holding signs in the rain along the main street
01:04in Selmer. My friend Elizabeth here, I called her and said hey where can I set up in Selmer
01:09just so we can get some food. She said hey go to the farmer's market and we're gonna come by
01:13help so she come she got a bunch of stuff. Jamil's nephew number two barbecue is a modest food truck
01:19in the heart of northern Mississippi that often donates his time and profits to help his neighbor.
01:25So you can have all the money you want but if you don't have no way to use it you're in the
01:30worst shape as everybody else in so I just wanted to help everybody and so I
01:34told the girls let's go and they said okay and here we are. Serving up kindness and a hot meal
01:41is just one of the silver linings to shine among the tragedy. Reporting in Selmer, Tennessee,
01:46I'm Leslie Hudson for AccuWeather.