Michelle Huggins’ answer to insomnia is to spend a few afternoons in a freezing storage compartment in the middle of a nor’easter.

Huggins, a Mattapoisett resident, and her friend Julie Sherman are the forces behind Project Big Love, a grassroots effort to get relief supplies to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

“I can’t let that suffering go. It keeps me awake at night,” said Huggins.

Once she had the idea to collect supplies, it didn’t take long for it to go viral.

“We started it over the phone on Monday,” said Huggins. “On Tuesday, we were up and running.”

The message about the drive spread through Facebook.

Huggins’ converted the storage unit she uses for her company, Luxury Loo, into Project Big Love headquarters. Last week, just about the time the season’s first nor’easter hit, Huggins and Sherman opened for donations.

“The way we look at it, if you lost everything in your life, what would you want? They don’t have power. People are burning furniture. It’s just awful.” said Huggins amidst bags and boxes full of clothes, toiletries, books, food and cleaning supplies.

Tackling such a large project would be no easy feat for any mother of two young kids, but for Huggins, it’s especially challenging.

Huggins’ husband Will is currently undergoing chemotherapy for Stage 4 cancer, his second bout with the disease.

“We are often at Dana-Farbers, sometimes three times a week,” said Huggins. “My life is so out of control. This is a good way to feel I have some bit of control.”

The Huggins have been the recipients of fundraisers themselves due to Will’s illness.

“The community has completely embraced our family, and I think it’s so important to pay it forward and embrace other communities in need,” said Huggins.

With the community again rallying around a Huggins cause, the small storage unit was quickly filling up last week as the two friends began sorting items that were loaded into the Luxury Loo Ford 350 on Sunday.

Huggins made the trip on Monday morning to Union City, New Jersey, a place Huggins and Sherman said has yet to receive much aid.

“Even if I just do this one run, I’ll feel like at least we rallied together around something instead of just thinking about doing something,” she said.

Other groups that have rallied together to help support the victims of Sandy include the Mattapoisett Fire Department, Marion Police, Mattapoisett’s Center School teacher Maria Tomon as well as the Mattapoisett and Rochester Lions Clubs.

The two Lions Clubs banded together to collect donations, which will be delivered in New York on Friday.

“It’s just amazing,” said Rochester Lions Club member Deb Martin. “There are folks there that might be without power until the end of December.”