# Grand Junction Catholic Outreach Soup Kitchen, February 19



## bbally (Feb 20, 2011)

For my Sixth year now I cook for the Grand Junction Catholic Outreach Soup Kitchen.  The third Saturday of every month finds me at the soup kitchen cooking for the homeless and helping the soup kitchen use up the "weird stuff" that the home cooks don't want to mess with during the week.

For years since I started the folks at Red Lobster have save all the leftovers that meet the food safety standard for the soup kitchen.  When it builds up to enough stuff in the freezer it is all hauled out to thaw and I come in with my Fruita Monument High School Key Club to produce a meal out of it.  With today's economy I am back to feeding not only those with social problems, but many many families that cannot find jobs.  Many have a choice of shelter or food?  The pick shelter and come to the soup kitchen for food.

So  the crew gets busy busting up crab and lobster and shrimp from its shell so it can be added to the Seafood Enchilada mix in the tilt skillet.








As the cracking and cleaning continues the tilt skillet begins to fill up.  I get to work on the dried chilles.  We get a lot of dried chilles and most the other volunteers never use them.  Which is fine by me since it allows me to make a great enchilada base every few months.



















We also did not get a lot of bread today, so I whipped up a batch of biscuits.  I come in about two hours prior to my volunteers showing up.  This lets me figure out the menu, do any of the background prep work the meal will require and figure out how I am going to balance a meal with what is available to use.  It is like a giant iron chef contest in my mind.  Only the secret ingredient challenge also includes missing ingredients since we are run on what is donated.  In the background you can see the mess where I made the biscuits.  Had to use a paper towel holder as a rolling pin since there was none in the kitchen and I did not bring my baking kit.







We had a 35 pound drum of honey donated, so I figured I would whip up a Honey Chipotle pepper sauce for the biscuits.  One of my volunteers paints the sauce onto the biscuits in three layers.  Making a fairly nice biscuit for the meal.







  
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





The high school students have been with me for five years now, so they come in and know what to get done almost automatically.  Generally making a fruit salad, a green salad and since no desserts came in from the local stores today they will make a dessert for the meal.  Homemade spice cake is enjoyed by the clients for their lunch.













Some of the volunteers are working on various aspects of what I need for the meal to be completed.  We have to create a lot of refried beans, and complete cilantro rice dish, the seafood enchiladas need to be stacked in the hotel pans and then baked off to the finish.



















All coming together to create the food line for service.  We will feed 172 people today.













A few of the homeless guys have been helping me for the last six years.  I had a group of five pueblanos come into the kitchen as a donation.  When they saw them they started talking about Chile Rellanos and how they liked them.  So I roasted them up, cleaned them and made the five that help their own Chile Rellano dinner.  No green chili, so I hit them with the seafood enchilada base to finish the plate.













That is what I did before the race on Saturday.  With the help of the Fruita Monument High School Key Club we fed the 172 people who showed up hungry.

It is kind of funny how over the years I have gotten to know the people that rely on the kitchen for their food.  When they see my truck is there they come to tap on the window and ask what the menu is for the day.  They go back to the parks to tell people the homemade stuff is being cooked today.  Gets us a good crowd.


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## tjohnson (Feb 20, 2011)

GREAT JOB BOB!!!

THX!!!

Todd


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## fpnmf (Feb 20, 2011)

Awesome!!

You sir are my HERO!!

Those iron chefs are nothing compared to you and how you carry yourself.

   Thank you!

  Craig

  USAF 69-71

 Phan Rang AB


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## scarbelly (Feb 20, 2011)

Great job Bob - awesome meal as always. Kudos to the kids too.


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## rbranstner (Feb 20, 2011)

Once again you have outdone yourself.


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## racincowboy (Feb 20, 2011)

Awesome job Bob,

I wish I could cook like that and make a great meal out of "whatever is around". It is also great your kids come and help out to feed those that have fallen on rough times. Alot of people dont give high school kids enough credit. While my volunteer work is nothing in comparison to yours I volunteer at the local high school in the auto shop program.

With myself and their teacher (a friend of mine) we have started a school drag racing team to keep kids from racing on the streets. We have a local drag strip that is open every friday and saturday night from March till October (weather dependant) from 6pm to 1am and it is only 8 bucks to watch or 20 to race and make as many passes down the strip as you want. Grudge matches between friends and others are always on the menu. We are working with other high schools to start a metro high school drag racing association. With that the track with give the student members of the association discount admission and racing fees. So I would like to think through all of our partners hard work and corporate sponsors we are saving a life or two every weekend.

Great job on what you and your kids are doing. Keep it up. You have inspired me to look for other volunteer opportunities in my community.

Lance


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## daveomak (Feb 20, 2011)

Your actions could very well be contaigous.


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## bbally (Feb 20, 2011)

DaveOmak said:


> Your actions could very well be contaigous.




 When I used to write the blog regularly we started two soup kitchens in other states, and I cannot tell you how many people contacted me cause they wanted to get started helping out.  Lots contacted me to send money, I told them it would be better to find there local soup kitchen and support it with their money.  Many were taken back to find out they actually had a soup kitchen in their area.


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## venture (Feb 20, 2011)

You are a great American!


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## miamirick (Feb 20, 2011)

that is some good stuff there       keep up the good work   

if only OBAMA could help out the citizens as much!!!!


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## meateater (Feb 20, 2011)

Your a good man!


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## bbally (Feb 20, 2011)

Racincowboy said:


> Awesome job Bob,
> 
> I wish I could cook like that and make a great meal out of "whatever is around". It is also great your kids come and help out to feed those that have fallen on rough times. Alot of people dont give high school kids enough credit. While my volunteer work is nothing in comparison to yours I volunteer at the local high school in the auto shop program.
> 
> ...


That is a great cause Lance, I raced street eliminator as a kid, just before I went in the USMC I was racing a heavy eliminator.  '69 Chevelle built myself with a holeshot torque converter, line locks, the whole works.... She ran a 9.6 second quarter regularly with a 350 Small Block pushing the 350 turbohydromatic.  Racing was good for all of us and it was good being able to do it at a real track due to a program like you voluteer for.....

Your venture sounds like a good place for a Smoke Gathering!


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## bmudd14474 (Feb 21, 2011)

Thats awesome Bob


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## old poi dog (Feb 21, 2011)

Wonderful Job Bob.  Thank You  for being a great example of a person caring for his fellow man and mentoring the kids on developing similar traits.  Aloha to you my friend.


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## virginiasmokesignal (Feb 21, 2011)

Bob, words can not express how good I feel about what you are doing!   Your work with the Key Club as well as the soup kitchen is absolutely fabulous!  It is people like you that those Key Clubbers look up to at this time in their life and see the good things that they can become involved in.  The lord knows we need a lot more of that kind of kids in our world today.  Your influence on them will long be remembered.  I know the volunteers really appreciate what you are doing but to me more importantly is when you talked about the homeless guys coming by and knocking on the window to find out what the menu was and then going back out to other needy folks and bringing them in because they know that they are going to have something special that day.  This is great as they know that someone is taking the time to fix them something special.  Some times this is all a person needs to keep on keeping on, trying to better there life and get off the streets.  Your work is to be applauded as you continue to help not only our kids growing up and being exposed to this type of unselfishness but also your work feeding those who are less fortunate than we are with a delicious special meal that I am sure they enjoy.  My hat is off to you Bob, thank you so much! Keep up the good work!

Your SMF Friend,

Barry


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## smokin relaxin steve (Feb 21, 2011)

God Bless You! Thank you so much for everything you do to help those in need...


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## gotarace (Feb 27, 2011)

Bob your compassion for people and their problems brings a smile to my heart. You are a blessing to each and every persons life you touch. A thank you seams so small but it is all i have to offer. THANK YOU Bob.. you sir have my utmost Respect.


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## tyotrain (Feb 27, 2011)

Great Job


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