UMCOR Disaster Relief Facility to Close
Sager Brown Depot closing due to ‘unsustainable’ maintenance costs and effort to increase effectiveness
On February 10, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) announced that the Sager Brown Depot will conclude operations in January 2027, aiming to increase effectiveness and reduce costs.
Photo via United Methodist Church Global Ministries
The Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, Louisiana, has been UMCOR’s hub of supply kits production since 1996. Each year, more than 1,000 volunteers prepare about $3 million in relief supplies—hygiene kits, cleaning kits, and menstrual hygiene kits—that are then shipped to disaster areas throughout the U.S.
Following the closure, UMCOR — a unit of the United Methodist Church’s Global Ministries — plans to partner with a logistics organization and expand partnerships with affiliated warehouses throughout the country. This should allow for better geographic coverage during disasters and facilitate more volunteer opportunities, UMCOR said in its announcement. The restructure “aims to increase efficiency, scalability, and responsiveness while reducing costs.”
In a response to comments on the Facebook announcement, an UMCOR spokesperson said the 48,000-square-feet warehouse is “too large for UMCOR’s relief kit operation” and expounded on the facility’s unsustainable maintenance costs, including burdensome roofing and HVAC needs and modern upgrades such as software and barcodes.
A press release from Global Ministries said UMCOR is “reimagining its approach to disaster material resources management,” including how disaster relief supply kits are assembled, stored, and delivered.
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“As disasters increase in frequency throughout the United States, building a more distributed and agile network that draws on the expertise of partners is critical to UMCOR’s future disaster response efforts,” said Roland Fernandes, general secretary of Global Ministries and UMCOR, in the press release. “We know that this transition represents a significant shift for those involved with this ministry.
Throughout 2026, plans to assemble relief kits and host mission experiences at Sager Brown will proceed as scheduled.
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