RK EMS - About Us

RK Emergency Management Support

PROVIDING EMERGENCY & CONTINGENCY ASSISTANCE WITH TEMPORARY FOOD SERVICE & SHELTER OPERATIONS

RK Emergency Management Support (RKEMS) provides emergency management support services to communities struggling to cope and recover from unexpected natural disasters, infrastructure disruptions and other emergency events. We support the response and recovery phases of disaster and incident management, primarily providing emergency assistance across the contiguous U.S with:

  • Temporary Food Services
  • Temporary Housing / Shelter Operations
  • Basecamp Support Utilities & Services

RKEMS serves communities in need, response and recovery professionals, as well as military training maneuvers and missions. We have expertise quickly mobilizing, delivering and managing: unrivaled field-based culinary operations; temporary structures and furnishings; and mobile assets to support billeting, operations, hygiene, and food services at basecamps and other temporary facilities.

In the last five years, our team has deployed and rapidly assembled more than 1.3 million sq. ft. of temporary structures in support of emergency basecamps and missions nationwide, where our team also prepared and served more than 3.5 million meals and nearly two million snacks to basecamp residents and personnel. We are an established turnkey solution provider for multiple services including:

RKEMS has a large fleet of purpose-built assets to address mass feeding and the hygiene needs of recovery professionals and displaced residents.  Our personnel and assets are ready to quickly mobilize and customize large-volume culinary and hospitality services, and we are supported by The RK Group’s large family of specialized event service companies, which allows us to leverage assets, expertise and personnel when the mission requires. As an industry-leading culinary and hospitality service management company specializing in conventions and large events with tens of thousands of attendees, The RK Group is the ‘Go-To, Can Do’ Group that can scale to virtually any challenge. The company is renowned for its 75-year history of excellence and has established operations across the central U.S., and from Seattle to Florida.

Tent Built Out

History

RKEMS and its affiliated companies are experienced with providing emergency food and dining service, temporary living facilities and utilities within the contiguous United States.  We have specialized in this field of service for nearly 15 years, and have experience supporting multiple federal agencies as a sub-contractor on numerous large deployments and emergency food missions, as well as recent experience responding to Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas 2019, and Hurricane Harvey along the gulf coast in 2017. RKEMS holds the following certifications and contracting registrations:

  • Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB), Self-certified
  • ISO 9001:2015 Certified
  • Texas HUBZone Certified
  • Disaster Response Vendor & SAM.gov Vendor

RKEMS aids government agencies, their primary contractors and corporate partners, and has the capabilities to respond rapidly to support operations throughout North America. We also serve commercial clients working to restore critical infrastructure, typically providers of utilities, energy, communications, chemicals, transportation, and health services. Our structure and feeding services are orchestrated by experienced and specialized managers and supported by a robust logistics and transportation capability, to optimally serve federal, state and municipal agencies and other partners such as:

  • HHS, DOD, FEMA, DOE, CISA, SERTs, CERTs, etc.

RK Emergency Management Support continues to build upon recent prior experience with high-volume missions and extended deployment durations, which include residential shelter and food service for, among others:

  • (2021) - multiple basecamp missions currently ongoing
  • (2020) - a 171-day basecamp mission; 1,750 peak population
  • (2019/18) - a 212-day basecamp mission; 5,500 peak population
  • (2017/16) - a 162-day basecamp mission; 2,000 peak population

The RK Group serves as a partnering vendor to RK Emergency Management Support (RKEMS) providing preferred pricing and service priority while providing the unique opportunity to leverage their vast experience, personnel, and diverse expertise in culinary and hospitality services to scale effortlessly to any challenge. The RK Group (www.therkgroup.com) is a national leader in culinary, event and hospitality services as well as contracted venue management continuing to expand its sphere of influence nationally and build upon a 75-year legacy.

Mobile Fleet - Demo Days

Mission

The RKEMS mission is to rapidly deploy and operate facilities that sustain relocated and displaced persons, as well as those responding to and facilitating recovery following natural disasters and other emergencies. All disasters are local to the impacted community, but not every locality is prepared when disaster strikes. As such, serve those in service and those in need, typically working in partnership with government operators, prime contractors, non-profits and corporate enterprises to keep heroes going, keep them sheltered, and keep them fueled during these critical operations.

RK Emergency Management Support employs a multi-disciplinary incident management team ready to support emergency services for:

  • Hurricane & tornado response and recovery
  • Flood, Fire & Earthquake response and recovery
  • Industrial Contingency response and recovery
  • Hazardous Material Spill response and recovery
  • Pandemic response and recovery
  • Terrorism response and recovery

In these times of need, RKEMS delivers and manages: field food service operations; tenting solutions for billeting, meals and responder operations; furniture and equipment provisioning; utilities and camp facility support services; as well as transportation and logistics services supporting emergency response and recovery operations.

Mobile Control Center

Management

Rick Freeman

Vice President, Sales & Operation

Jennifer Kowalski Heinz

General Manager

Karen Karlis

Director of Sales

Julie Skenandore

Office Coordinator

Brett Westphal

National Account Manager

Jeff Skenandore

Warehouse Manager & Loading Coordinator

Daniel Gifford

Mobile Assets Manager

Suriya Munawar

National Projects Manager

Kaitlin Humphrey

Regional Project Manager

Lexis Valmore

Assistant National Projects Manager

Mobile Kitchen