For most people, a barbecue emergency would entail running out of buns or over-charring the chicken wings. For the men and women of Operation BBQ Relief, that means it's time to drive into a disaster zone, fire up their smokers and serve hot meals to people on worst day of their lives.

There is something about barbecue that brings out the best in humankind. It's an inherently generous undertaking. No one makes just enough for a couple of plates; the time and effort just wouldn't be worth it. A giant hunk of meat - a shoulder, brisket, slab or ribs or even a whole, delicious beast - is cause for celebration and camaraderie.

It also presents a built-in invitation in the form of a smoky, meaty scent that acts as a homing beacon to your backyard. If you 'cue it up, they will come.

But after tornadoes laid waste to the town of Moore, Oklahoma, earlier this week, many residents were left without a backyard to call their own - let alone a smoker, tongs or even a plate from which to eat. That's when Operation BBQ Relief rolled in.
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Previously in meat-based fashion

And by the way? Anderson Cooper, eat your vegetables!

Wild game is fair game in our books, but roadkill kinda curbs our appetite. Would you chow down on found deer?
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Quoth Anderson, "The heart wants what the heart wants - and sometimes the heart wants McNuggets, even when they're only serving breakfast."

"Spinach tastes like Wolf Blitzer's beard dipped in a salad," says potential scurvy-haver Anderson Cooper. He knows that because he ate a vegetable once.

Previously - Anderson Cooper, eat your vegetables!

Anderson Cooper's favorite teen bride and alliterative tweeter Courtney Stodden is on a sexy campaign to sexily promote eating sexy veggies sexily. Because of vegetarianism. Sexy, sexy vegetarianism.

Oh Anderson, how do you not get scurvy? Or even rickets? You are a beautiful, intelligent creature, sent unto us from the heavens, and we would like you to live well and healthily for a very long time. Please eat some vegetables.

No, really - your twice a day corn and mashed potatoes from Boston Market don't really count. Even if you go for the double serving of corn as you are wont to do. And it's not like you're alone - according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2010 data, only six percent of men and four percent of women eat enough vegetables.

You can do better than that, Anderson. You can BE better than that.
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Anderson Cooper reports live from Somalia and talks with U2's Bono about the disturbing hunger situation there and how you can help. Tune into "AC360º" at 8 and 10 p.m. ET Wednesday on CNN.

There is no way to dignify the description of death by starvation. It is neither quick nor painless. Not too long after the food is cut off, the body resorts to fuel reserves in the liver and fatty tissues. Once the fat is all gone, and the person is a skeleton of what he or she once was, the body searches for protein, and finds it in muscle tissue. Even the muscle of the heart is consumed, leaving someone drained and listless.

The body shuts down. The pulse, the blood pressure and body temperature all precipitously drop. Little kids such as Ahmed (a six year old boy at the Dadaab refugee camp) completely stop growing and become stunted in time.

Read more at Saving Ahmed from starvation

Previously - The funny sounding nut paste that's saving children's lives in Somalia