On Tuesday, journalists at The News and Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina got to take a lunch break courtesy of the Houston Chronicle.
"A huge thanks to @nancycbarnes and our friends at @HoustonChron for sending lunch to our weary news crew!" tweeted Robyn Tomlin, editor of The News and Observer and The Herald-Sun in Durham and the regional editor for McClatchy's newsrooms in the Carolinas.
"We're so grateful to our journalism community for sending treats and offering support over the last week, but we're especially appreciative of The Houston Chronicle staff, who have recent and significant experience telling a story like this that unfolds in heart-breaking chapters over a long period of time," Tomlin said in an email. "We're inspired by the example they set during Harvey and are equally dedicated to telling the story of Florence's long-term impact on our state and region."
The Chronicle is continuing the tradition of food and solidarity. Last year, as journalists there covered Hurricane Harvey, a group of Houston natives at The Washington Post sent the Chronicle donuts.
"The Houston Chronicle got enormous support from newsrooms across the country during Hurricane Harvey and the aftermath, and we want to give back," emailed Chronicle editor Nancy Barnes, who worked at the News and Observer for 10 years. "We are also working on care packages for some other Carolina newsrooms, especially those that had to evacuate."
The newsroom food chain, which has many links we've likely missed, includes:
– The Dallas Morning News to the Miami Herald as that newsroom covered the death of Fidel Castro in 2016
– Several newspapers, including the Orlando Sentinel, to The Dallas Morning News after an attack on Dallas police officers in 2016
– Several newsrooms to the Orlando Sentinel after the Pulse Nightclub attack in 2016
– The Baltimore Sun to the Post and Courier after the deadly church shooting in Charleston in 2015
– The Boston Globe to the Baltimore Sun as that newsroom covered the death of Freddie Gray in 2015
– The Chicago Tribune to the Boston Globe as the Globe covered the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013
This year, the newsroom food chain took a touching turn when local newsrooms across the country got food, coffee and support from their communities following the shooting at the Capital Gazette that killed five in Annapolis, Maryland.
This was an image one of those newsrooms shared:
A simple gesture from @HolyDonutMaine this morning had me crying at my desk. pic.twitter.com/IA6Xf5ITzL
— Katherine Lee (@katherine_lee1) June 29, 2018
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a quote from Robyn Tomlin.
