October 24, 2025 • 37 mins
What if a hot, chef-prepared, thoughtful meal could change the course of a disasterous day in your life? That is the calling that changed how victims and first responders of the world's worst events received meals in the middle of disater zones.
Local Chef Gary LeBlanc of Portsmouth, VA joins us to share how Mercy Chefs went from a garage operation fueled by personal credit cards to a global relief network serving more than 30 million chef-prepared meals, without compromising quality or humanity. We talk about the moment Katrina exposed the problem with “keep-them-alive” food, and how a tilt skillet, smart logistics, and a relentless standard turned empty parking lots into working kitchens within hours.
Gary opens the playbook: arrive fast, cook at scale, and always plate with dignity, recognizable protein, starch, veg, and fresh-baked bread or dessert. We dig into the early skepticism from legacy groups, the proof that followed, his wife's incredible support, and the mental-health guardrails that help teams serve through the hardest days, including the shift from search and rescue to recovery. From Asheville’s long tail of need, where a black bear literally followed the bakery smells, to building out permanent community kitchens and maintaining a 12-hour deployment goal, the story is equal parts operational grit and human warmth.
We also explore the Family Grocery Box program (70 servings, recipes, spices, QR codes) designed to refill empty pantries when survivors return home, and the global training model spreading in Honduras, El Salvador, and Argentina. Politics never enters the serving line; one question guides everything: Are you hungry? If this conversation moves you, come closer. Volunteer, donate, or share the episode to help more people find it. Then tell us: what would you cook first when hope needs a plate?
Please support Mercy Chefs here: https://mercychefs.com/
and on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/mercychefs/
Thank you Chef Gary for being a shining example of love and compassion and using your culinary talents to massive scale and for your faith and stedfast leadership with your wife to keep this mission going!
Welcome to the show! Burnt Hands Perspective
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*The views and opinions on this show are meant for entertainment purposes only. They do not reflect the views of our sponsors. We are not here to babysit your feelings, if you are a true industry pro, you will know that what we say is meant to make you laugh and have a great time. If you don't get that, this is not the podcast for you. You've been warned. Enjoy the ride!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:24):
All right, so Burham's perspective today is on
a is on another level.
We have a we have an amazingguest.
We have some great stuff to talkabout.
SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
We're very excited.
SPEAKER_02 (00:32):
Stuff I've seen all my life, kind of well, not all
my life, obviously it hasn'tbeen around all my life, but um
I have seen it, you know,starting probably Katrina-ish
times, um, because I'm a chef.
Because I'm in the industry, Ialways wonder about that.
I always wonder about whenthere's a big disaster, right?
I always wonder about not somuch this may be my youth
speaking back then.
I wasn't really so much worriedabout humanity because I don't
(00:53):
think I was old enough tounderstand it.
What I was wondering is though,what happens to all these people
that are working and they don'thave jobs anymore?
Or what's gonna happen to thatrestaurant and this, that, and
the other.
Yeah.
So it all kind of works out.
And then I worry about, I neverthought about feeding all the
people outside of therestaurant.
I always concerned myself withthe restaurant.
It wasn't until I got older andstuff that I started realizing
holy shit, this is a disaster.
(01:14):
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
So so there's a lot of umthere's a lot of mystique around
that.
So I would notice, you wouldnotice uh who who first, uh the
um what on the scenes?
On the scene, yeah.
So mercy chefs came around andI've noticed them before.
SPEAKER_01 (01:29):
You saw this before, but you didn't really, yeah.
We kind of filled you in on onwhat they do.
SPEAKER_02 (01:34):
Right.
Well, what I'm saying, what I'mgetting back at is you see back
in the day on TV when they'rerunning the B-roll of the
disaster itself, you see thehelp.
You would see the thing.
You see the tragedy, you see thedevastation, right?
And then you would see somebodyfeeding all these people.
That is when I startedrealizing, wow, how do you feed
all these people now that therestaurants are gone?
And how do you feed these peoplenow that the there's no grocery
stores?
(01:54):
What the hell's going on?
People are starving now.
You didn't think about that,right?
Right until I got older, andthen I started noticing as a
chef, how do you feed my diningroom, let alone a city?
You know, a town, a country.
So you would see all these help.
Uh and I'm I'm having a brainfart now coming up with these
names, but Mercy Chefs wasalways one of them.
unknown (02:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (02:15):
And here you are now, not realizing they're
headquartered right here.
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Yeah, I don't think a lot of people realize, so,
chef Gary LeBlanc, we want tothank you for being with us
because this is amazing.
Um, Mercy Chefs is knownthroughout the entire world.
So, I mean, but most people inthe 757 don't realize that you
are here home-based in a littlearea of Portsmouth.
SPEAKER_00 (02:36):
From coastal Virginia to the world, it seems
like that's that's been thetrend for us.
And, you know, you talked aboutwhat happens after a disaster.
You know, that was the birth ofMercy Chefs.
Um, New Orleans was my hometown.
It's it's where I grew up in thebusiness, it's it's where all my
culinary roots are.
And to watch the city.
So you have that New Orleanscooking tradition style.
(02:58):
I'm I'm well storied in that.
Um, but to watch Katrina is whenI went down and and volunteered
for the very first time, notknowing any of those things.
And then being so dissatisfiedwith the quality of food that I
saw being served.
You know, it's one thing to keepsomebody alive in the aftermath
of a disaster.
So you're talking about abiscuit, maybe uh an apple.
(03:20):
You know, we we we saw it 14nights in a row, you know, a
group scoop green beans out of acan on a plate with a coal hot
dog one night, with frozenchicken nuggets a night, and and
a slice of white bread.
And they were doing the bestthey could with what they had.
Absolutely.
They were doing all they knewhow to do.
But I knew as a chef, assomebody in the profession, that
there is a better way to feedpeople.
(03:42):
And I thought we could do that,and I thought we could do it at
volume.
And that's that's what we'vebeen working through for 20
years now is how to do itbetter, how to do it for more,
how to get there quicker, how todo it more often.
And that's that's our chase.
We're we're never quitesatisfied.
SPEAKER_02 (03:59):
Well, no, you're right.
I mean, so you're learning, andand as you go, we're talking
about let's let's give a littlebreakdown on how this works.
So we we can sit there and talkabout the food all we want,
which we will.
But let's let's talk about how,you know, when you're talking
about cooking for we're justtalking like it's normal.
We're having a conversationabout cooking.
What we're not talking about isthe amount of cooking.
How many people actually areaffected by a devastation or a
(04:22):
disaster, right?
Right.
How many people are affected,and then how many people show up
looking?
How long do you are you therebefore the word gets out and
more people start coming?
How do you keep up with this?
That's that's kind of what Iwant to know is how did it start
from then to now?
SPEAKER_00 (04:35):
Man, it it is it is like a nuclear explosion
sometimes.
You show up, you set up, andthen it's Katie Bar the door.
I mean, there's no ramp up,there's no on-ramp.
You you go from it's an emptyparking lot one day, the next
day, you're doing 20,000 mealsessentially off a garden hose
and an extension cord, andyou're doing beautiful meals.
(04:56):
Everything is handcrafted,everything is chef prepared.
We we put so much love in ourfood.
So it's great food, but we cando it at volume as well.
We want to get there quickly.
You know, we know those firstresponders, the men and women
that are doing law enforcementor search and rescue, um, they
work so hard and they usually doit eating MREs or power bars.
(05:17):
That's all they got.
That's that's no way to that'sthe they're they're heroes.
They are the heroes in disaster.
SPEAKER_02 (05:23):
Is that your main goal is to feed those who are
helping the needy or uh and Isay needy meaning the the
victims?
Displaced.
Are you are you right?
Are you helping is your goal tohelp would did it start out, did
Mercy Chefs start out helpingthe the displaced victims, or
did it start out helping the uhresponders?
SPEAKER_00 (05:40):
Well, actually, we feed victims, volunteers, and
and the first responders.
It started out more with some ofthe volunteer crews.
I mean, I was working afull-time job my first five
years in Mercy Chefs.
And so it was when I could get aweekend or paid time off and go
and support those teams doingthe rebuilding effort.
And then we just got better, wegot more involved.
(06:00):
And so now it's a race to getthere, take care of those first
responders, start feeding thevictims, and then stay, stay as
long as we need to stay to feedthose volunteers.
SPEAKER_02 (06:10):
So that's a good point of view.
That's a good point.
You need to feed the firstresponders so they can respond.
Yeah.
They need to be strengthened,they need to have a good stomach
full, they need to be able to beable to make decisions.
You can't do that stuff whenyou're hungry or hangry or
making decisions, you know,last-minute decisions when
you're not feeling right either.
Sometimes, all the time, really,some of us find only comfort in
(06:31):
a good meal.
SPEAKER_00 (06:32):
Well, we think so.
Amazing things happen when youshare a meal.
We do it as friends, we do it asfamily.
But when you do it with somebodyon the worst day of their life,
um, it's it's next level.
I mean, it's next level.
SPEAKER_02 (06:43):
Yeah, definitely.
So how do you now you startedout small, I imagine.
You started, you said you had ayou had a uh part, a full-time
job, so you were going off onyour own to do this.
So basically, you would kind ofalmost in a in a sense, I'm
looking at it almost likeBatman.
You're watching the radar,you're seeing where next
devastation is gonna be, andyou're gonna you're gonna be
there to help.
If you're doing it part-time,you have to almost find
(07:05):
something to go do, I wouldimagine.
Is that right?
So with that comes funding andbuying this stuff.
At the beginning, how did you dothis?
How how did you come up with thefood at the beginning?
SPEAKER_00 (07:16):
The the very worst business model you could ever
have.
Um, in the first five or sixyears, I'd do a deployment on a
personal credit cards, and thenI'd get home and I'd raise
enough money to pay my cardsback down.
Um, we we didn't have anycredit, we didn't have any base.
I mean, nobody's gonna be ableto do that.
So you're doing this completelyon your own.
(07:36):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you know, first fiveyears we were the major donors
and and we just believed in it.
I have a hard time askingsomebody for money for an idea.
Hey, can you know, but I don'thave a hard time telling
somebody, hey, this is what wejust did, or this is what we're
doing in the moment.
Would you like to be part ofthat?
So back your request off of uhhorrible business model, though.
(07:59):
It it will strengthen a marriageif the marriage survives.
Sure.
Um, so many times it was like,okay, we just I knew when it was
time to come home.
My credit cards were full.
I just couldn't.
SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
That was how you gauged how much you could do in
the beginning.
SPEAKER_02 (08:12):
Bad, bad business.
You can't become a victim doingtrying to do good work.
Yeah.
And and so your your wife andyourself are the founder and
co-founder.
Yeah.
So you've been through this fromthe beginning.
SPEAKER_00 (08:22):
Yeah.
Together.
Yeah, and and we've we've justseen it grow.
The escalation of what we do andand how we've grown is
phenomenal.
10 years to serve our firstmillion meals.
Took 10 years to serve a millionmeals.
We served our next million mealsin three years.
Wow.
And in the, let me do math realquick.
(08:43):
In the seven years since then,we've served another 30 million
meals.
I mean, the power of agoliths.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
Yeah, that that that yeah, like you said, explodes.
SPEAKER_00 (08:54):
It it really is.
I mean, nine years ago, it wasme and a part-time admin working
out of half my garage.
Uh we've got 124 staff rightnow.
We have 124 people.
SPEAKER_02 (09:05):
It's just what it takes to get this done.
Sure.
And then you got, you know, nowyou have your outreach with
donors, and I'm sure you havepeople now that believe in you
and see what you've been doing,what you're capable of, so they
have a lot more confidence inbacking this, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00 (09:18):
Yeah, we've seen that grow as well.
But again, we had to prove it.
There are people that didn'tbelieve this was gonna work.
When when I first had the visionfor Mercy Chefs, when I first
got called, I went back to allthe other groups that work in
the disaster relief space andsaid, Hey, I've got this
business model.
And they all said, You're afool.
You're you're you're on a fool'serrand.
(09:40):
This will never work.
It's too expensive, it's gonnatake special equipment, it's
gonna take specialized chefs.
Uh, and and some of them evensaid, you know, we raise plenty
of money doing bad food.
Why, why would we need to dogood food?
So it was a heart call rightfrom the beginning.
It it wasn't about making sense,it was about hearing a call and
(10:01):
answering it with everythingthat I had.
I mean, I had to, I just had tolay it all down.
SPEAKER_02 (10:07):
And a slight bit of a little dash of I'll show you
competition.
SPEAKER_00 (10:12):
Um, I I would say not, but it's probably evident
that you know it's nice to seesomething work that that you
believed in that is a chef, too.
SPEAKER_01 (10:22):
And you're like, I know it can be done.
SPEAKER_02 (10:25):
There's no quest to make sure this gets done.
If you think if you if you thinkit can be done, you should get
it done, period.
That's it.
That sauce is never gonna hold.
SPEAKER_00 (10:32):
And then it does, and you're kind of like, yeah,
yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:35):
Oh, yes, it will.
unknown (10:36):
Trust me.
SPEAKER_00 (10:37):
Yeah, I feel very fortunate though.
That's like, oh man, I I wasn'tsure myself.
SPEAKER_02 (10:41):
Yeah, that's not gonna rise.
That dough's not gonna rise.
So when you started out withthis, we already know that it
was from Katrina, got you goingand amped up.
I'm I do a lot of um uh food.
I just started maybe 10 yearsago with some of my brothers in
the club I'm in.
And we've gone from a smalltrailer to now seven to eight uh
(11:03):
tractor trailers in one day ofdelivery that is substantial.
It's I think it's the EastSouthern uh South Virginia,
Eastern Virginia's food bank'sbiggest donations of the year.
Uh, we have a huge, huge thing,and we're we're making millions
of meals off of our donation.
Right.
So it started from somethingjust an idea, yeah, just to do
something and get and and andadd a little bit of help to now
(11:25):
it we're dependent on for italmost.
You know what I mean?
If we I feel personally that ifwe back out of that or slow it
down, we're doing a disserviceas much as we did a service.
SPEAKER_00 (11:36):
You know, I always laugh like I I knew I knew
tradesmen, plumbers orcarpenters that were making a
great living with one truck anda helper.
And they said, Well, let me getanother truck.
And first thing they knew, theyhad 10 trucks and 35 people on
staff, and they wake up one dayand say, Wait a minute, I'm
working twice as hard, makinghalf the money.
I'm gonna go back to one truck.
I feel that way all the time.
(11:58):
But I can't go back to one truckbecause it what we do is for
people.
Um, it's a service.
I have to keep growing, I haveto keep getting to more people.
That's the one thing that drivesme.
Every time I feed somebody,every time I see three more
people I can't get to.
And I'm I gotta get to one more.
Yeah, and then I gotta get toone more.
(12:20):
And it's 30 million more later.
SPEAKER_02 (12:21):
Yeah, it's just a drive, man.
I can't, I can't go back to onetruck.
And and and the personal questthat you have is if you fail on
that for yourself, not toanybody else, you feel like
you're not providing what you'rehere to do.
And and I feel the same way in asense, when you know, you know,
people obviously come in here,they're not in the situation of
a tragedy.
They're coming in here becausethey have they want to spend
(12:43):
their money and enjoythemselves.
But it's still my goal the sameway is to make food that bridge
is that is that bridge tosuccess.
And and I want to make surethey're happy.
And though this dining room wasfull now, I want more people to
come in here.
Not for the money, for the food.
Yes, the money is essential.
We need it to continue to grow,we need it to build.
You can't do nothing without it.
So we need donations.
You need donations, you needthings like that to happen and
(13:04):
come in.
You need people to believe inyou.
But when that is there andthat's in place, now it becomes
all right, now we haveeverything in line.
I want to see this line ofpeople get bigger.
I want to see more of kidseating.
It must be tragic for you to seesome of the situations that you
see.
SPEAKER_00 (13:18):
It's really hard sometimes.
We we work very uh diligentlyinternally.
We practice a lot of self-helpand uh well-being within the
team.
We have a staff psychologistthat's available to anybody on
the crew.
But that was my next question.
We see we see some ugly stuff.
And more than what we see, wetake on that emotion as we feed
(13:38):
somebody, you know, because foodis love.
Yeah, and and we're pouring outon them with everything we have.
When you're feeding search andrescue teams, you know the day
it goes from search and rescueto search and recovery.
Yeah, and you're in the middleof that, you're part of that
emotion.
And and we're very careful withour team to prov protect them
from that.
(13:59):
It it's difficult, um, but itdrives us.
It just it drives us evenfurther.
And now that we're global, thethings that we're seeing
internationally are are beyondum what what my American brain
can always understand.
SPEAKER_01 (14:14):
Yeah, I don't think a lot of people realize that
too.
But you guys do lean in.
I guess let's talk about thescope of the size of your team
now, because I mean you havewhat 20,000 volunteers.
SPEAKER_00 (14:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:24):
I mean, that's that in itself.
Look at you know, any largecorporation and they, you know,
managing 20,000 people andcoordinating that.
And how many trucks do you guyshave now?
SPEAKER_00 (14:36):
Uh we've got five kitchens with two more in the
factory, and uh we have fivecommunity kitchens, full-time
permanent sticks and brickskitchens around the country.
Uh and we keep our mobilekitchens dispersed um so we can
react to any disaster as quicklyas possible.
Um, our our goal is under 12hours to be at the heart of the
(14:57):
disaster and to be able to startfeeding.
SPEAKER_02 (15:00):
So uh what what what do you consider if you have
those teams around, what type ofdisaster do you can what do you
consider a disaster to where youneed to be there?
SPEAKER_00 (15:11):
Yeah, it it it doesn't matter.
I mean, if if your home got hitby a tornado and it was the only
home that got hit, and that's adisaster in your life.
SPEAKER_02 (15:22):
So you're going out to things of that caliber all
the way up to a landslide thatwiped out unfortunately a whole
village or something.
SPEAKER_00 (15:28):
Yeah, we we we have to pick and choose.
Obviously, we can't go for onehome, but but the the point of
that is that that that it'simportant to meet people in
their moment of need.
A 30,000 foot view of a disasterdoesn't count.
Oh, it looks bad down there.
That doesn't matter.
You have to get down eye to eyewith the people and say, you
know, I'm here because you'reimportant.
(15:49):
Um, I'm I'm here because youdeserve somebody to stand with
you.
And that's that's where we doour best work, is when we're eye
to eye with someone.
SPEAKER_02 (15:57):
Sure.
And that's that's where it'smost felt in the community
anyway.
And that's what that's reallife, anyway.
You can't do what you're doingand not be eye to eye.
You can't send them down with adrone.
You have to be there.
SPEAKER_00 (16:06):
Yeah, I want to say too though, that that we feed um
as many people as we can get to.
And we don't ask questions abouthow big was it, or how worthy of
it, or is this gonna get press,or not.
The only question we've everasked in 20 years is, are you
hungry?
We we don't we don't ask abouttheir faith, we don't ask about
their political background, wedon't ask them about anything.
(16:28):
The only question we ever askis, Are you hungry?
No.
And and that's who we feed.
That's it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:34):
Yeah, everything else is irrelevant.
It absolutely is.
At that moment, everything elseis irrelevant.
I mean, when everybody's in thesame uh in the same pickle, uh
uh how you got there isirrelevant.
SPEAKER_00 (16:44):
We fed in in some really um precarious political
positions.
You know, everything is is is sodivided nowadays.
And we've been in places thatweren't really well received by
folks, and they're like, why areyou there?
Why, you know, this or that.
Look, look, look, what happenswith these folks, what happens
with the politics happens so farabove my pay grade, right?
(17:06):
All I care about is that personin this moment.
What what then a politician or agovernment or a country does
with them is really not mybusiness.
I can't affect that.
I can affect them in that momentby by sharing a meal and
reminding them how importantthey are.
That's that's where I make adifference.
SPEAKER_02 (17:27):
That mindset, believe it or not, will help you
sleep really good at night, too.
Not worrying about all thatother stuff and just the meal.
If the if worrying about themeal is what you're worried
about, like I am, we don't haveto.
You're right.
I mean, you just sleep better atnight knowing that all you have
to do is one thing.
SPEAKER_00 (17:41):
Yeah, food is crazy, isn't it?
I mean, you can pour all yourlove in it.
It's such a vehicle for emotionand passion and care and
comfort.
I mean it it it is it's it'sprimal.
Um, I I think it was the firstact of civilization was sharing
a meal one person with another.
I I I really believe it goes allthe way back.
It has to be.
SPEAKER_02 (18:01):
Yeah.
It has to be.
No one could no one could kill abuffalo alone back then.
Yeah.
You needed help and then who'sgonna eat it all.
You know, I think you're right.
But if you go, if you go back toum what she was saying before
about how you've grown andyou're all over the place with
these countries, in that, likeanything, I would imagine
there's some sort of subculturewithin the culture you created.
(18:21):
Meaning, if you have this out inother countries, you're dealing
with people who are helping youor working with you in other
countries, right?
Right.
So almost like a food bank.
The food bank started as onething.
In every city, pretty much,every big city has one.
Uh, they have their own crew,their own unit, all underneath
the same umbrella.
However, they all have their ownlittle subculture, right?
(18:42):
Right.
So you're gonna get to the pointwhere if you haven't already,
I'd imagine that that is goingon and you kind of have to bring
everyone together to stayfocused on your mission.
Is that a thing?
Uh how does that how do you goabout that?
SPEAKER_00 (18:52):
Yeah, we do.
I mean, internally, we're veryfocused on mission.
We, we, we have we have allthose little parts of our
culture.
But as we're out there, youknow, it's not just food that we
have to share, right?
We have knowledge, skills,talents, abilities that we we
need to share.
So we do a lot of teaching, wedo a lot of training.
Uh, we we have a teachingkitchen and a training base in
(19:13):
Comiagua, Honduras.
And from there, we're alreadybranching out.
We just launched a mobilekitchen in El Salvador.
We just built another kitchen inArgentina.
So our team is able to go inwith people in the community and
say, let us model this for you.
Let us show you how to do this.
And then we come in and supportthem whenever they need us to,
(19:33):
but then stay out of the way.
If you can teach them how tofeed their community, um, then
then you've you've you've done agood thing.
There's a lot more effect thanthat than me trying to stand in
front of a stove uh in and thefew places that I can go.
SPEAKER_02 (19:47):
So the quality of food of what you're talking
about, you're talking about thegood meals, everything we've
already said, right?
My guess what I'm getting at isif you have a team in Honduras,
for instance, or South Americaor something, that team is being
ran by somebody down there, Iwould imagine, or you're
counting on someone there tokeep it up.
So keeping up the standard ofthat quality of food, is that is
that yes, we know we have tofeed them.
(20:08):
Everybody has to be fed, butthere also has to be a standard
met.
Do you see yourself havingcomplications with that?
Keeping that standard of whatyou expect.
SPEAKER_00 (20:17):
Yeah, sometimes.
Sometimes.
But if you find people that havea passion that's similar, um,
and they just need a little jumpstart, they need, they need a
six burner or um, they needgroceries for the first six
months, or they need somebody toremind them about the importance
of sanitation and food safety.
I mean, teaching time andtemperature controls in Latin
America is crazy.
(20:37):
Um, I rem I remember being inHaiti um teaching the the ladies
that we we left three kitchensin Haiti then, one of them still
operates.
But teaching those Haitianladies that we trained to wash
their hands with warm water, Imean, they live in heat.
Heat is their whole life.
You want me to put my hand inhot water?
They were they they just couldnot conceive that.
(20:58):
But but sharing the importanceof that, um, that proper
sanitation in the kitchen andmodeling those things for them
and and creating a passion inthem.
SPEAKER_02 (21:07):
I'm I'm a I'm a serve safe instructor and
proctor for food handlingmanagement, all that stuff.
And it's hard enough for us totrain Americans here.
I couldn't even imagine someonetraining someone, and it's not
lesser of a person, it's justtheir culture.
SPEAKER_01 (21:21):
But our culture is different.
SPEAKER_02 (21:22):
So trying to teach somebody a whole different
culture in order to get yourmission complete is kind of
where I'm at.
So that's what I was saying.
So it must be really hard, in asense, to not only put out your
great food, but the whole thingaround it has to stay right so
the subcultures don't startdeteriorating your mission.
SPEAKER_00 (21:37):
Well, you stop in, you do checkups, you know, and
and and we we have a whole teamthat travels globally.
Um we don't work with any of ourpartners globally, that we don't
do a check-in multi times ayear.
Oh, um, we want to we want tosee proof of performance.
We want to see that they'restill doing what they're saying
that they're doing, and thatwe're not just a funding agency.
Um, I I I you know what we do istoo fun too, right?
(22:01):
I I don't want to just fundsomebody.
I want to go and be a part ofit.
Like I want to touch it, see it,smell it.
I want to stand there with them.
You know, that's that's thejazz.
Yeah, I don't want to give thatup.
SPEAKER_02 (22:11):
Right.
And in all these places you go,the power's out.
Uh the the the um all the thingsthat you need are not available
pretty much.
So you you must be showing up inyour sleeping in tents or in the
back of the truck that you towedwith or something like that,
right?
Your team must have some sort offacility.
You got to facilitate quartersfor them, and that's a whole
nother spectrum, right?
SPEAKER_00 (22:32):
Yeah, we just we just inaugurated our second bunk
trailer um because I justcouldn't have the team on the
floor, you know.
I mean, sure.
My first couple nights out inthe field, we're sleeping on the
the floor of the mobile kitchen.
I remember a picnic bench onetime that I thought was pretty
nice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Uh, you know, 20 years havepassed.
I'm not, you know, the team isvery kind to me now.
They they make sure I'm takencare of, but they've had some
(22:54):
rough, rough environments.
I mean, really tough going inafter a hurricane and going to
the heart of the need.
SPEAKER_01 (23:00):
You go right to the center.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
Yeah, I mean, there's there's no place around
us that's safe.
Everything is down.
You must have spent time inAsheville when that happened and
things like that.
You know, we're still inAsheville.
Wow.
Um, we are still in Ashevillecoming up on the one-year
anniversary.
Uh, we've served over 800,000hot meals there, and we will
have served a million meals, amillion meals in western North
(23:24):
Carolina since Helene.
Wow.
And it's just important to us.
The need is still there.
Yeah.
So we have to still be there.
I mean, the the donations andthe funding have long since
stopped.
Sure.
I can't leave.
There are people there thatstill need our help.
We've just made a commitmentdown in Ingram, Texas, and the
aftermath of those horriblefloods down there.
(23:46):
We're gonna build a communitykitchen in Ingram.
We're gonna stay in thatcommunity for forever.
We're gonna be a part of thatcommunity.
You you you stay where there's aneed, you invest in the people
in the community.
If it's important right afterthe storm when everyone's
watching, it has to be importanta year later when no one's
watching.
SPEAKER_01 (24:04):
And a lot of people forget because you know the next
thing has come along, or youknow, but you had to build out
infrastructure to be able to dothat, which is just insane.
And there's not a disaster allthe time, so it's not like
you're you're going somewhere.
So you guys have actually filledin by implementing other things.
Now, you said there werekitchens, like you have
permanent kitchens in cities,but you also do the food, the
(24:25):
boxes.
So, how how does that work withwithin the business?
SPEAKER_00 (24:29):
Well, the family the family grocery boxes, we keep we
keep improving those.
It's a curated box of groceries.
We've got it up to 70 servingsin a box.
Um, and and they're not uhsurplus stuff that we get off a
shelf or out of a warehouse.
We go out and purchaseeverything in there.
We put recipe cards, we havelittle spice packets we put in
(24:51):
there.
There are QR codes where theycan find other recipes because
it has to be the very best thatwe can possibly put out there.
And our family grocery boxprogram is growing incredibly.
We've we've got to find awarehouse now.
Um it's created.
SPEAKER_01 (25:06):
How long has it been going on?
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
Uh we've been doing family grocery boxes for about a
year and a half now.
SPEAKER_01 (25:11):
And it's already grown.
SPEAKER_00 (25:12):
Yeah, it was something that my wife came up
with.
All my good ideas were my wife'sto begin with.
SPEAKER_01 (25:17):
Good awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (25:18):
Yeah, I I I stole them all, right?
Um, but she was like, you know,we have to do something for
people that are going back intheir homes after a disaster.
They've lost everything in thepantry, everything in the fridge
has long since been thrown out.
Man, to go home and recharge apantry is five or six hundred
bucks.
We don't have salt.
You know, who's who's been outof work for three or four weeks
(25:39):
that was living paycheck topaycheck before that can go out
and recharge a pantry?
So it's important for us thatwhat what is the need?
How can we better serve?
Uh and family grocery boxes cameout of that.
And now it's a whole program onits own.
We're we're doing thousands ofgrocery boxes every month.
SPEAKER_01 (25:58):
That's crazy.
That's amazing.
It is.
And that is that primarily stilllocal?
Like, are you just doing that inVirginia?
Are you taking these with youwhen you go to the house?
SPEAKER_00 (26:05):
No, we just we're we're doing 200 a week down in
Ingram now for the people thatwent through the floods that are
getting back in their homes.
Um, we're still doing almost 800a month in western North
Carolina um for folks that takeback home.
And then, you know, easternKentucky from the floods three
years ago, we're still workingthere with the grocery boxes and
then here locally as well.
(26:26):
Um, it it if if there's a needand we can get to it and we have
the ability, we'll take care ofit.
unknown (26:32):
That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02 (26:33):
So your your your chef knowledge has brought you
to some really good things.
I saw some of the food you wereplating.
I did some research, of course,and a lot of the stuff that you
guys are putting out on theseessentially cardboard plates or
whatever it is they're doing arecoming out really, really nice.
I mean, you're doing a lot ofstuff.
I would imagine when you'rebuilding these trucks out,
you've got a lot of uh tiltskillets and cauldrons and and
all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (26:53):
It's a tilt skillet, baby.
Every time.
Every time.
I take everything out thekitchen, leave me with a tilt
and we're gonna make a meal.
SPEAKER_02 (26:59):
Correct.
And you can make a damn good onebecause you can start with
everything from your braisingall the way up to your your
slowing, your your jarring, youcan brown your meats, you can do
everything in that.
It's the whole thing.
You can definitely make a lot ofmeals in one tilt skillet.
SPEAKER_00 (27:11):
I've I've I've baked biscuits in a tilt skillet
because there was just nothingelse to do what, you know?
Yeah, I can imagine.
But the meals are so importantto us, and we want them to
reflect our love and our passionfor the people.
So there's always a recognizableprotein.
There's always a starch, there'salways a veg.
We bake on site.
I have two pastry chefs thattravel with us, and we we do our
(27:33):
desserts, we do our breads allon site.
Not nothing, you know, it's lovefrom the oven.
I mean smelling that.
Yeah.
It gives hope.
It does give hope.
In Asheville, uh, we wereworking, and there was a black
bear that found our dumpster,loved our dumpster, right?
And so after three weeks, threeand a half weeks, we moved to
another location.
Um, and when we moved to theother location, it was about
(27:55):
eight or nine blocks away,right?
Found it.
Second day yeah, there's blackbear is following us around.
That's about I don't know ifeverybody else is loving us, but
the wildlife is following.
I'm gonna tell you.
SPEAKER_01 (28:05):
He had a good hibernation then.
SPEAKER_02 (28:06):
Yeah, he did.
He did.
SPEAKER_01 (28:08):
He was eating good the whole time.
SPEAKER_02 (28:09):
I'll tell you what, you know, to to cook like that,
firstly, we when you loseeverything and you're losing
everything.
When a town gets shut down,you're losing everything.
You're losing the smell of gas,you're losing the smell of car
fumes, you're losing the smellof everything.
Just a normal industry that wasshut down.
Yeah.
So if you show up and you don'tknow what's going to happen next
and you're hungry and you startsmelling this food, you're gonna
(28:29):
smell that tenfold.
It's almost like driving downthe road and by a Burger King in
the winter when that cold andyou all you smell is that Burger
King.
I know exactly what you'resaying.
Yeah, yeah.
Great picture.
Yeah, so so when you're smellingthat and you're driving through
it, you know.
And if you're if you're bakingbread on top of it, yeah,
where's the disaster at thismoment?
SPEAKER_01 (28:47):
There are no disaster here.
SPEAKER_02 (28:49):
Someone's getting you good tonight.
I hope so.
That's the way you the mentalityyou guys are what you're
bringing to people.
And that's amazing.
It's amazing.
I I love having conversationswith chefs who have gone outside
of the kitchen and still createsuch an impact on people's
lives.
Because, like you said,everything we do is based around
the best celebration of us isaround a table.
Absolutely.
And um, some people are in it tomake money.
(29:10):
Making money to me always comesif you just do it right in the
first place.
If your function or your or yourmission is to bring people
around the table and love whatyou do, don't worry about the
money.
That that's gonna comenaturally.
But don't do this just to makemoney.
SPEAKER_00 (29:24):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I I agree completely.
We always say that um um moneywill follow ministry, but
ministry should never followmoney.
And and so it's like in thosefirst five years or so, I just
did it.
I just got out there and did thebest I could with what I had.
Yeah, and and kept doing it.
And the resources followed, butI had to do the work first.
(29:46):
I had to take that step of blindfaith.
SPEAKER_01 (29:49):
Yeah, but you had the faith and the tenacity to
follow through with it.
SPEAKER_00 (29:53):
I don't know that I really had the faith.
Now it's easy to say, oh yeah, Ihad the faith.
Back then I was terrified.
SPEAKER_01 (29:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (29:59):
I was terrified.
I was like, God, what do youwant me to do?
This doesn't make sense.
I can't, I can't rationalizethis.
I've got to go tell my wife thatyou've called me to mission
work.
Come on, it's just not gonnafly, man.
We both know we're using our owncredit card.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I when when when and itwas an audible call.
I mean, I actually heard Godspeak out loud to me and tell me
(30:20):
to go feed people.
Just go feed people.
In the aftermath of Katrina,that was the message I got.
I sat down with a piece of paperand I wrote down eight names of
people that I knew could do itbetter than me.
I said, God, why are you talkingto me?
Here are eight other people.
Do you need phone numbers,emails?
How can I get you in touch withthem?
Like you can you got the wrongguy.
(30:41):
I mean, you got the wrong guy.
But kicking and screaming andfighting and trying to run from
it, I couldn't.
I couldn't.
And and just to see thatobedience, I didn't have to be
smart.
I didn't have to do anything butsay yes.
Yep.
That's all I had to do was yes.
And I did that reluctantly.
(31:01):
Almost as easy as the question,are you hungry?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (31:04):
Yeah.
It's so simple, isn't it?
It is.
It is.
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
That is amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (31:08):
People make it not simple.
That's the thing.
So that's right.
You've took it and went with itand you let the simple do the
work.
SPEAKER_01 (31:14):
Well, and now have you seen the new Netflix, the
documentary on Katrina that justcame out?
Have you seen that yet?
SPEAKER_00 (31:20):
I can't watch it.
Yeah, I was going to ask you tobe able to.
Okay.
20 years of Katrina anniversary.
I've dealt with them all andrecognized, and it's motivated
me every time.
Something about this year.
SPEAKER_01 (31:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:32):
I couldn't watch.
I I just I couldn't watch itthis year.
Um, so I probably will ease intoit.
Um, but it's gonna take a littlebit of time.
It was we were in New Orleansthree weeks ago.
Uh we we were looking at a placedown there to do a community
kitchen, a full-time thing.
You know, it what a perfectcircle for me to finally end up
back down here.
Um but yeah, I I maybe it'sbecause I was just there, but I
(31:57):
I just couldn't watch.
It was such a powerful moment inmy life.
Um, images on TV, my town beingtorn up and the effect that that
had on me, I I I still I I I Istill have a hard time looking
squarely at what really happenedto my town.
Yeah, yeah, it's devastating forsure.
SPEAKER_02 (32:16):
That's a and that it sits on you.
Yeah, it does.
It sits on you.
Has that has the town sincegrown back up or starting to
come up?
SPEAKER_00 (32:23):
You know, we go all the time to visit and and um it
was starting to come back.
Um you could you could feel it,you know, and then COVID hit.
Man, it was that was that waslike the blind punch coming out
of left, man.
You just didn't see it, youknow, and it completely took the
city down to nothing again, thehospitality industry,
especially.
(32:43):
And now we we we're we're justdown if it feels alive again, it
feels full again.
But you have to recognize NewOrleans still has 75% of the
population that it had beforeKatrina.
Twenty years later, thepopulation hasn't grown back in
in the city.
I mean, tourism is back,restaurants are back.
I mean, great things arehappening down there on the food
(33:05):
scene.
The hotels are back, they've allbeen renovated and freshened.
I mean, it's alive.
It's alive, right?
But there are still scars.
SPEAKER_02 (33:14):
Sure.
unknown (33:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (33:15):
Like, yeah, I can imagine so.
Well, you did an amazing thingby setting up what you did, and
if anything came of that, uh,one thing, you know, with scars
come healing.
And I think that you coming fromthat, if that's if you know, if
anything good comes from that,I'm sure other things good came
from it too.
But Mercy Chefs uh essentiallycame from that, right?
So something did come from it.
(33:36):
Good, right?
Because here you are now, andthat and that paves the way
because no matter what happens,the tra the devastation is the
devastation.
That's never gonna go away.
But what came from it on thepositive, here you are, now
you're off doing it to otherpeople and helping out there
too.
So yeah, yeah, kudos to that.
An amazing, an amazing feat.
SPEAKER_01 (33:54):
I love it.
Well, I I just I love hearing itbecause again, I remember when I
was back at the news stationwhen they'd first brought you
guys on, and this was back, Imean, 2008, 2009, somewhere
around that area.
Yeah, and I remembered seeingwhat you guys did and then
seeing it go from that to nowand being like, oh my gosh,
they're in the middle of, Imean, national coverage news,
(34:16):
seeing people that were like,that's our trip.
They're from they're from ourhometown.
Like they actually came out ofVirginia and you're everywhere.
And to see that is an incrediblething.
And I think just people beinginspired and to not be afraid of
going after things and and tohelp people.
I just I'm I'm glad you came toshare that because it's cool to
see it just grow the way that ithas because you guys do amazing
(34:37):
work and it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00 (34:38):
It's miraculous, and it's something well beyond me.
So hope you get to come out andsee us sometime.
Chef, we need to we invite youin our kitchen.
I would love to.
SPEAKER_02 (34:46):
If you're ever free, I would have to have you with
us.
Catastrophe happened for that tohappen.
So let's not confuse this,right?
All right, yeah.
But they happen.
Yeah, it's always gonna happenand it's never gonna stop.
Yeah, yeah.
So I would love to take you upon this as long as you're there
with me.
I'll be there.
Yeah.
All right.
He's still there.
SPEAKER_01 (35:04):
Well, I mean, we do get him a bed now, but he's
still at the trailer.
SPEAKER_02 (35:07):
I won't need a bed.
SPEAKER_00 (35:09):
I won't make you sleep on the floor.
I'll continue to work.
SPEAKER_01 (35:11):
It's okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (35:12):
I would love to take you up on that.
I would love to be there.
Um, matter of fact, we'll talk.
I would really want to I reallywant to take you up on that.
I would love to be a part ofthat.
Yeah, and they're something Iwould love to experience.
We'd be honored to have you inour kitchen.
That'd be one.
That'd be a good idea.
Sure, I'd love to cook somethingfor them.
That'd be fun.
That'd be amazing.
So let's line that up.
Like I said, unfortunately, forthe reasons why aren't good.
However, it's that's what you'rehere for, and that's what I want
(35:34):
to go be part of.
Yeah.
I would love to help you out andbe part of it and experience.
That'd be amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (35:37):
And how can everybody else still help?
Because I'm, I mean, I know youyou guys are, I mean, you are
cranking.
So what where can people go?
How can they help you?
What are all the ways that theycould participate?
SPEAKER_00 (35:47):
You know, the website is the best place.
First thing I want people topray for us, pray for the people
that we're serving.
That's the most important thing.
But beyond that, on the website,you can volunteer.
That's the links, that's howpeople get into our volunteer
network.
And there are secure links onthere that people that that say,
hey, I've got a little treasure.
I'd like to invest that insomething outside of my world.
(36:10):
I'd like to be a part of thatsomehow.
Not everybody can go and serveand cook like you, Chef, but
everybody, everybody can pitchin a little bit.
You need help on all fronts.
That's what keeps us rolling.
SPEAKER_01 (36:20):
Okay.
So and the website, go ahead andmercychefs.com.
SPEAKER_00 (36:22):
It's pretty easy to remember.
Source of all information,mercychefs.com.
Perfect.
SPEAKER_02 (36:26):
And that'll link you to everything.
SPEAKER_00 (36:28):
Everything.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (36:29):
Wonderful.
Well, it's been an honor havingyou here.
I know.
It's and it's it's honorablewhat you do and what you've
created and all your team andteams throughout the world.
We appreciate you.
And from a culinary standpoint,I find it fascinating because
what you're doing is on a onthat level of mask production in
a good quality.
I know what it takes, and Ican't wait to be part of it.
I would definitely want to comesee it firsthand.
SPEAKER_00 (36:49):
It is great to be with you guys today.
Thank you so much for thehospital.
SPEAKER_01 (36:53):
Cheers to the next 30 million meals.
SPEAKER_00 (36:55):
Oh my gosh.
I'm tired.
I'm tired.
SPEAKER_01 (36:59):
Maybe 10 million right now.
We'll go for that.
SPEAKER_02 (37:01):
Cool.
Well, ciao for now.
Thanks for coming.
Glad to be with you.
All right, so Burham's perspective today is on
a is on another level.
We have a we have an amazingguest.
We have some great stuff to talkabout.
SPEAKER_01 (00:31):
We're very excited.
SPEAKER_02 (00:32):
Stuff I've seen all my life, kind of well, not all
my life, obviously it hasn'tbeen around all my life, but um
I have seen it, you know,starting probably Katrina-ish
times, um, because I'm a chef.
Because I'm in the industry, Ialways wonder about that.
I always wonder about whenthere's a big disaster, right?
I always wonder about not somuch this may be my youth
speaking back then.
I wasn't really so much worriedabout humanity because I don't
(00:53):
think I was old enough tounderstand it.
What I was wondering is though,what happens to all these people
that are working and they don'thave jobs anymore?
Or what's gonna happen to thatrestaurant and this, that, and
the other.
Yeah.
So it all kind of works out.
And then I worry about, I neverthought about feeding all the
people outside of therestaurant.
I always concerned myself withthe restaurant.
It wasn't until I got older andstuff that I started realizing
holy shit, this is a disaster.
(01:14):
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
So so there's a lot of umthere's a lot of mystique around
that.
So I would notice, you wouldnotice uh who who first, uh the
um what on the scenes?
On the scene, yeah.
So mercy chefs came around andI've noticed them before.
SPEAKER_01 (01:29):
You saw this before, but you didn't really, yeah.
We kind of filled you in on onwhat they do.
SPEAKER_02 (01:34):
Right.
Well, what I'm saying, what I'mgetting back at is you see back
in the day on TV when they'rerunning the B-roll of the
disaster itself, you see thehelp.
You would see the thing.
You see the tragedy, you see thedevastation, right?
And then you would see somebodyfeeding all these people.
That is when I startedrealizing, wow, how do you feed
all these people now that therestaurants are gone?
And how do you feed these peoplenow that the there's no grocery
stores?
(01:54):
What the hell's going on?
People are starving now.
You didn't think about that,right?
Right until I got older, andthen I started noticing as a
chef, how do you feed my diningroom, let alone a city?
You know, a town, a country.
So you would see all these help.
Uh and I'm I'm having a brainfart now coming up with these
names, but Mercy Chefs wasalways one of them.
unknown (02:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (02:15):
And here you are now, not realizing they're
headquartered right here.
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Yeah, I don't think a lot of people realize, so,
chef Gary LeBlanc, we want tothank you for being with us
because this is amazing.
Um, Mercy Chefs is knownthroughout the entire world.
So, I mean, but most people inthe 757 don't realize that you
are here home-based in a littlearea of Portsmouth.
SPEAKER_00 (02:36):
From coastal Virginia to the world, it seems
like that's that's been thetrend for us.
And, you know, you talked aboutwhat happens after a disaster.
You know, that was the birth ofMercy Chefs.
Um, New Orleans was my hometown.
It's it's where I grew up in thebusiness, it's it's where all my
culinary roots are.
And to watch the city.
So you have that New Orleanscooking tradition style.
(02:58):
I'm I'm well storied in that.
Um, but to watch Katrina is whenI went down and and volunteered
for the very first time, notknowing any of those things.
And then being so dissatisfiedwith the quality of food that I
saw being served.
You know, it's one thing to keepsomebody alive in the aftermath
of a disaster.
So you're talking about abiscuit, maybe uh an apple.
(03:20):
You know, we we we saw it 14nights in a row, you know, a
group scoop green beans out of acan on a plate with a coal hot
dog one night, with frozenchicken nuggets a night, and and
a slice of white bread.
And they were doing the bestthey could with what they had.
Absolutely.
They were doing all they knewhow to do.
But I knew as a chef, assomebody in the profession, that
there is a better way to feedpeople.
(03:42):
And I thought we could do that,and I thought we could do it at
volume.
And that's that's what we'vebeen working through for 20
years now is how to do itbetter, how to do it for more,
how to get there quicker, how todo it more often.
And that's that's our chase.
We're we're never quitesatisfied.
SPEAKER_02 (03:59):
Well, no, you're right.
I mean, so you're learning, andand as you go, we're talking
about let's let's give a littlebreakdown on how this works.
So we we can sit there and talkabout the food all we want,
which we will.
But let's let's talk about how,you know, when you're talking
about cooking for we're justtalking like it's normal.
We're having a conversationabout cooking.
What we're not talking about isthe amount of cooking.
How many people actually areaffected by a devastation or a
(04:22):
disaster, right?
Right.
How many people are affected,and then how many people show up
looking?
How long do you are you therebefore the word gets out and
more people start coming?
How do you keep up with this?
That's that's kind of what Iwant to know is how did it start
from then to now?
SPEAKER_00 (04:35):
Man, it it is it is like a nuclear explosion
sometimes.
You show up, you set up, andthen it's Katie Bar the door.
I mean, there's no ramp up,there's no on-ramp.
You you go from it's an emptyparking lot one day, the next
day, you're doing 20,000 mealsessentially off a garden hose
and an extension cord, andyou're doing beautiful meals.
(04:56):
Everything is handcrafted,everything is chef prepared.
We we put so much love in ourfood.
So it's great food, but we cando it at volume as well.
We want to get there quickly.
You know, we know those firstresponders, the men and women
that are doing law enforcementor search and rescue, um, they
work so hard and they usually doit eating MREs or power bars.
(05:17):
That's all they got.
That's that's no way to that'sthe they're they're heroes.
They are the heroes in disaster.
SPEAKER_02 (05:23):
Is that your main goal is to feed those who are
helping the needy or uh and Isay needy meaning the the
victims?
Displaced.
Are you are you right?
Are you helping is your goal tohelp would did it start out, did
Mercy Chefs start out helpingthe the displaced victims, or
did it start out helping the uhresponders?
SPEAKER_00 (05:40):
Well, actually, we feed victims, volunteers, and
and the first responders.
It started out more with some ofthe volunteer crews.
I mean, I was working afull-time job my first five
years in Mercy Chefs.
And so it was when I could get aweekend or paid time off and go
and support those teams doingthe rebuilding effort.
And then we just got better, wegot more involved.
(06:00):
And so now it's a race to getthere, take care of those first
responders, start feeding thevictims, and then stay, stay as
long as we need to stay to feedthose volunteers.
SPEAKER_02 (06:10):
So that's a good point of view.
That's a good point.
You need to feed the firstresponders so they can respond.
Yeah.
They need to be strengthened,they need to have a good stomach
full, they need to be able to beable to make decisions.
You can't do that stuff whenyou're hungry or hangry or
making decisions, you know,last-minute decisions when
you're not feeling right either.
Sometimes, all the time, really,some of us find only comfort in
(06:31):
a good meal.
SPEAKER_00 (06:32):
Well, we think so.
Amazing things happen when youshare a meal.
We do it as friends, we do it asfamily.
But when you do it with somebodyon the worst day of their life,
um, it's it's next level.
I mean, it's next level.
SPEAKER_02 (06:43):
Yeah, definitely.
So how do you now you startedout small, I imagine.
You started, you said you had ayou had a uh part, a full-time
job, so you were going off onyour own to do this.
So basically, you would kind ofalmost in a in a sense, I'm
looking at it almost likeBatman.
You're watching the radar,you're seeing where next
devastation is gonna be, andyou're gonna you're gonna be
there to help.
If you're doing it part-time,you have to almost find
(07:05):
something to go do, I wouldimagine.
Is that right?
So with that comes funding andbuying this stuff.
At the beginning, how did you dothis?
How how did you come up with thefood at the beginning?
SPEAKER_00 (07:16):
The the very worst business model you could ever
have.
Um, in the first five or sixyears, I'd do a deployment on a
personal credit cards, and thenI'd get home and I'd raise
enough money to pay my cardsback down.
Um, we we didn't have anycredit, we didn't have any base.
I mean, nobody's gonna be ableto do that.
So you're doing this completelyon your own.
(07:36):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you know, first fiveyears we were the major donors
and and we just believed in it.
I have a hard time askingsomebody for money for an idea.
Hey, can you know, but I don'thave a hard time telling
somebody, hey, this is what wejust did, or this is what we're
doing in the moment.
Would you like to be part ofthat?
So back your request off of uhhorrible business model, though.
(07:59):
It it will strengthen a marriageif the marriage survives.
Sure.
Um, so many times it was like,okay, we just I knew when it was
time to come home.
My credit cards were full.
I just couldn't.
SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
That was how you gauged how much you could do in
the beginning.
SPEAKER_02 (08:12):
Bad, bad business.
You can't become a victim doingtrying to do good work.
Yeah.
And and so your your wife andyourself are the founder and
co-founder.
Yeah.
So you've been through this fromthe beginning.
SPEAKER_00 (08:22):
Yeah.
Together.
Yeah, and and we've we've justseen it grow.
The escalation of what we do andand how we've grown is
phenomenal.
10 years to serve our firstmillion meals.
Took 10 years to serve a millionmeals.
We served our next million mealsin three years.
Wow.
And in the, let me do math realquick.
(08:43):
In the seven years since then,we've served another 30 million
meals.
I mean, the power of agoliths.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
Yeah, that that that yeah, like you said, explodes.
SPEAKER_00 (08:54):
It it really is.
I mean, nine years ago, it wasme and a part-time admin working
out of half my garage.
Uh we've got 124 staff rightnow.
We have 124 people.
SPEAKER_02 (09:05):
It's just what it takes to get this done.
Sure.
And then you got, you know, nowyou have your outreach with
donors, and I'm sure you havepeople now that believe in you
and see what you've been doing,what you're capable of, so they
have a lot more confidence inbacking this, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00 (09:18):
Yeah, we've seen that grow as well.
But again, we had to prove it.
There are people that didn'tbelieve this was gonna work.
When when I first had the visionfor Mercy Chefs, when I first
got called, I went back to allthe other groups that work in
the disaster relief space andsaid, Hey, I've got this
business model.
And they all said, You're afool.
You're you're you're on a fool'serrand.
(09:40):
This will never work.
It's too expensive, it's gonnatake special equipment, it's
gonna take specialized chefs.
Uh, and and some of them evensaid, you know, we raise plenty
of money doing bad food.
Why, why would we need to dogood food?
So it was a heart call rightfrom the beginning.
It it wasn't about making sense,it was about hearing a call and
(10:01):
answering it with everythingthat I had.
I mean, I had to, I just had tolay it all down.
SPEAKER_02 (10:07):
And a slight bit of a little dash of I'll show you
competition.
SPEAKER_00 (10:12):
Um, I I would say not, but it's probably evident
that you know it's nice to seesomething work that that you
believed in that is a chef, too.
SPEAKER_01 (10:22):
And you're like, I know it can be done.
SPEAKER_02 (10:25):
There's no quest to make sure this gets done.
If you think if you if you thinkit can be done, you should get
it done, period.
That's it.
That sauce is never gonna hold.
SPEAKER_00 (10:32):
And then it does, and you're kind of like, yeah,
yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:35):
Oh, yes, it will.
unknown (10:36):
Trust me.
SPEAKER_00 (10:37):
Yeah, I feel very fortunate though.
That's like, oh man, I I wasn'tsure myself.
SPEAKER_02 (10:41):
Yeah, that's not gonna rise.
That dough's not gonna rise.
So when you started out withthis, we already know that it
was from Katrina, got you goingand amped up.
I'm I do a lot of um uh food.
I just started maybe 10 yearsago with some of my brothers in
the club I'm in.
And we've gone from a smalltrailer to now seven to eight uh
(11:03):
tractor trailers in one day ofdelivery that is substantial.
It's I think it's the EastSouthern uh South Virginia,
Eastern Virginia's food bank'sbiggest donations of the year.
Uh, we have a huge, huge thing,and we're we're making millions
of meals off of our donation.
Right.
So it started from somethingjust an idea, yeah, just to do
something and get and and andadd a little bit of help to now
(11:25):
it we're dependent on for italmost.
You know what I mean?
If we I feel personally that ifwe back out of that or slow it
down, we're doing a disserviceas much as we did a service.
SPEAKER_00 (11:36):
You know, I always laugh like I I knew I knew
tradesmen, plumbers orcarpenters that were making a
great living with one truck anda helper.
And they said, Well, let me getanother truck.
And first thing they knew, theyhad 10 trucks and 35 people on
staff, and they wake up one dayand say, Wait a minute, I'm
working twice as hard, makinghalf the money.
I'm gonna go back to one truck.
I feel that way all the time.
(11:58):
But I can't go back to one truckbecause it what we do is for
people.
Um, it's a service.
I have to keep growing, I haveto keep getting to more people.
That's the one thing that drivesme.
Every time I feed somebody,every time I see three more
people I can't get to.
And I'm I gotta get to one more.
Yeah, and then I gotta get toone more.
(12:20):
And it's 30 million more later.
SPEAKER_02 (12:21):
Yeah, it's just a drive, man.
I can't, I can't go back to onetruck.
And and and the personal questthat you have is if you fail on
that for yourself, not toanybody else, you feel like
you're not providing what you'rehere to do.
And and I feel the same way in asense, when you know, you know,
people obviously come in here,they're not in the situation of
a tragedy.
They're coming in here becausethey have they want to spend
(12:43):
their money and enjoythemselves.
But it's still my goal the sameway is to make food that bridge
is that is that bridge tosuccess.
And and I want to make surethey're happy.
And though this dining room wasfull now, I want more people to
come in here.
Not for the money, for the food.
Yes, the money is essential.
We need it to continue to grow,we need it to build.
You can't do nothing without it.
So we need donations.
You need donations, you needthings like that to happen and
(13:04):
come in.
You need people to believe inyou.
But when that is there andthat's in place, now it becomes
all right, now we haveeverything in line.
I want to see this line ofpeople get bigger.
I want to see more of kidseating.
It must be tragic for you to seesome of the situations that you
see.
SPEAKER_00 (13:18):
It's really hard sometimes.
We we work very uh diligentlyinternally.
We practice a lot of self-helpand uh well-being within the
team.
We have a staff psychologistthat's available to anybody on
the crew.
But that was my next question.
We see we see some ugly stuff.
And more than what we see, wetake on that emotion as we feed
(13:38):
somebody, you know, because foodis love.
Yeah, and and we're pouring outon them with everything we have.
When you're feeding search andrescue teams, you know the day
it goes from search and rescueto search and recovery.
Yeah, and you're in the middleof that, you're part of that
emotion.
And and we're very careful withour team to prov protect them
from that.
(13:59):
It it's difficult, um, but itdrives us.
It just it drives us evenfurther.
And now that we're global, thethings that we're seeing
internationally are are beyondum what what my American brain
can always understand.
SPEAKER_01 (14:14):
Yeah, I don't think a lot of people realize that
too.
But you guys do lean in.
I guess let's talk about thescope of the size of your team
now, because I mean you havewhat 20,000 volunteers.
SPEAKER_00 (14:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (14:24):
I mean, that's that in itself.
Look at you know, any largecorporation and they, you know,
managing 20,000 people andcoordinating that.
And how many trucks do you guyshave now?
SPEAKER_00 (14:36):
Uh we've got five kitchens with two more in the
factory, and uh we have fivecommunity kitchens, full-time
permanent sticks and brickskitchens around the country.
Uh and we keep our mobilekitchens dispersed um so we can
react to any disaster as quicklyas possible.
Um, our our goal is under 12hours to be at the heart of the
(14:57):
disaster and to be able to startfeeding.
SPEAKER_02 (15:00):
So uh what what what do you consider if you have
those teams around, what type ofdisaster do you can what do you
consider a disaster to where youneed to be there?
SPEAKER_00 (15:11):
Yeah, it it it doesn't matter.
I mean, if if your home got hitby a tornado and it was the only
home that got hit, and that's adisaster in your life.
SPEAKER_02 (15:22):
So you're going out to things of that caliber all
the way up to a landslide thatwiped out unfortunately a whole
village or something.
SPEAKER_00 (15:28):
Yeah, we we we have to pick and choose.
Obviously, we can't go for onehome, but but the the point of
that is that that that it'simportant to meet people in
their moment of need.
A 30,000 foot view of a disasterdoesn't count.
Oh, it looks bad down there.
That doesn't matter.
You have to get down eye to eyewith the people and say, you
know, I'm here because you'reimportant.
(15:49):
Um, I'm I'm here because youdeserve somebody to stand with
you.
And that's that's where we doour best work, is when we're eye
to eye with someone.
SPEAKER_02 (15:57):
Sure.
And that's that's where it'smost felt in the community
anyway.
And that's what that's reallife, anyway.
You can't do what you're doingand not be eye to eye.
You can't send them down with adrone.
You have to be there.
SPEAKER_00 (16:06):
Yeah, I want to say too though, that that we feed um
as many people as we can get to.
And we don't ask questions abouthow big was it, or how worthy of
it, or is this gonna get press,or not.
The only question we've everasked in 20 years is, are you
hungry?
We we don't we don't ask abouttheir faith, we don't ask about
their political background, wedon't ask them about anything.
(16:28):
The only question we ever askis, Are you hungry?
No.
And and that's who we feed.
That's it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:34):
Yeah, everything else is irrelevant.
It absolutely is.
At that moment, everything elseis irrelevant.
I mean, when everybody's in thesame uh in the same pickle, uh
uh how you got there isirrelevant.
SPEAKER_00 (16:44):
We fed in in some really um precarious political
positions.
You know, everything is is is sodivided nowadays.
And we've been in places thatweren't really well received by
folks, and they're like, why areyou there?
Why, you know, this or that.
Look, look, look, what happenswith these folks, what happens
with the politics happens so farabove my pay grade, right?
(17:06):
All I care about is that personin this moment.
What what then a politician or agovernment or a country does
with them is really not mybusiness.
I can't affect that.
I can affect them in that momentby by sharing a meal and
reminding them how importantthey are.
That's that's where I make adifference.
SPEAKER_02 (17:27):
That mindset, believe it or not, will help you
sleep really good at night, too.
Not worrying about all thatother stuff and just the meal.
If the if worrying about themeal is what you're worried
about, like I am, we don't haveto.
You're right.
I mean, you just sleep better atnight knowing that all you have
to do is one thing.
SPEAKER_00 (17:41):
Yeah, food is crazy, isn't it?
I mean, you can pour all yourlove in it.
It's such a vehicle for emotionand passion and care and
comfort.
I mean it it it is it's it'sprimal.
Um, I I think it was the firstact of civilization was sharing
a meal one person with another.
I I I really believe it goes allthe way back.
It has to be.
SPEAKER_02 (18:01):
Yeah.
It has to be.
No one could no one could kill abuffalo alone back then.
Yeah.
You needed help and then who'sgonna eat it all.
You know, I think you're right.
But if you go, if you go back toum what she was saying before
about how you've grown andyou're all over the place with
these countries, in that, likeanything, I would imagine
there's some sort of subculturewithin the culture you created.
(18:21):
Meaning, if you have this out inother countries, you're dealing
with people who are helping youor working with you in other
countries, right?
Right.
So almost like a food bank.
The food bank started as onething.
In every city, pretty much,every big city has one.
Uh, they have their own crew,their own unit, all underneath
the same umbrella.
However, they all have their ownlittle subculture, right?
(18:42):
Right.
So you're gonna get to the pointwhere if you haven't already,
I'd imagine that that is goingon and you kind of have to bring
everyone together to stayfocused on your mission.
Is that a thing?
Uh how does that how do you goabout that?
SPEAKER_00 (18:52):
Yeah, we do.
I mean, internally, we're veryfocused on mission.
We, we, we have we have allthose little parts of our
culture.
But as we're out there, youknow, it's not just food that we
have to share, right?
We have knowledge, skills,talents, abilities that we we
need to share.
So we do a lot of teaching, wedo a lot of training.
Uh, we we have a teachingkitchen and a training base in
(19:13):
Comiagua, Honduras.
And from there, we're alreadybranching out.
We just launched a mobilekitchen in El Salvador.
We just built another kitchen inArgentina.
So our team is able to go inwith people in the community and
say, let us model this for you.
Let us show you how to do this.
And then we come in and supportthem whenever they need us to,
(19:33):
but then stay out of the way.
If you can teach them how tofeed their community, um, then
then you've you've you've done agood thing.
There's a lot more effect thanthat than me trying to stand in
front of a stove uh in and thefew places that I can go.
SPEAKER_02 (19:47):
So the quality of food of what you're talking
about, you're talking about thegood meals, everything we've
already said, right?
My guess what I'm getting at isif you have a team in Honduras,
for instance, or South Americaor something, that team is being
ran by somebody down there, Iwould imagine, or you're
counting on someone there tokeep it up.
So keeping up the standard ofthat quality of food, is that is
that yes, we know we have tofeed them.
(20:08):
Everybody has to be fed, butthere also has to be a standard
met.
Do you see yourself havingcomplications with that?
Keeping that standard of whatyou expect.
SPEAKER_00 (20:17):
Yeah, sometimes.
Sometimes.
But if you find people that havea passion that's similar, um,
and they just need a little jumpstart, they need, they need a
six burner or um, they needgroceries for the first six
months, or they need somebody toremind them about the importance
of sanitation and food safety.
I mean, teaching time andtemperature controls in Latin
America is crazy.
(20:37):
Um, I rem I remember being inHaiti um teaching the the ladies
that we we left three kitchensin Haiti then, one of them still
operates.
But teaching those Haitianladies that we trained to wash
their hands with warm water, Imean, they live in heat.
Heat is their whole life.
You want me to put my hand inhot water?
They were they they just couldnot conceive that.
(20:58):
But but sharing the importanceof that, um, that proper
sanitation in the kitchen andmodeling those things for them
and and creating a passion inthem.
SPEAKER_02 (21:07):
I'm I'm a I'm a serve safe instructor and
proctor for food handlingmanagement, all that stuff.
And it's hard enough for us totrain Americans here.
I couldn't even imagine someonetraining someone, and it's not
lesser of a person, it's justtheir culture.
SPEAKER_01 (21:21):
But our culture is different.
SPEAKER_02 (21:22):
So trying to teach somebody a whole different
culture in order to get yourmission complete is kind of
where I'm at.
So that's what I was saying.
So it must be really hard, in asense, to not only put out your
great food, but the whole thingaround it has to stay right so
the subcultures don't startdeteriorating your mission.
SPEAKER_00 (21:37):
Well, you stop in, you do checkups, you know, and
and and we we have a whole teamthat travels globally.
Um we don't work with any of ourpartners globally, that we don't
do a check-in multi times ayear.
Oh, um, we want to we want tosee proof of performance.
We want to see that they'restill doing what they're saying
that they're doing, and thatwe're not just a funding agency.
Um, I I I you know what we do istoo fun too, right?
(22:01):
I I don't want to just fundsomebody.
I want to go and be a part ofit.
Like I want to touch it, see it,smell it.
I want to stand there with them.
You know, that's that's thejazz.
Yeah, I don't want to give thatup.
SPEAKER_02 (22:11):
Right.
And in all these places you go,the power's out.
Uh the the the um all the thingsthat you need are not available
pretty much.
So you you must be showing up inyour sleeping in tents or in the
back of the truck that you towedwith or something like that,
right?
Your team must have some sort offacility.
You got to facilitate quartersfor them, and that's a whole
nother spectrum, right?
SPEAKER_00 (22:32):
Yeah, we just we just inaugurated our second bunk
trailer um because I justcouldn't have the team on the
floor, you know.
I mean, sure.
My first couple nights out inthe field, we're sleeping on the
the floor of the mobile kitchen.
I remember a picnic bench onetime that I thought was pretty
nice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Uh, you know, 20 years havepassed.
I'm not, you know, the team isvery kind to me now.
They they make sure I'm takencare of, but they've had some
(22:54):
rough, rough environments.
I mean, really tough going inafter a hurricane and going to
the heart of the need.
SPEAKER_01 (23:00):
You go right to the center.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
Yeah, I mean, there's there's no place around
us that's safe.
Everything is down.
You must have spent time inAsheville when that happened and
things like that.
You know, we're still inAsheville.
Wow.
Um, we are still in Ashevillecoming up on the one-year
anniversary.
Uh, we've served over 800,000hot meals there, and we will
have served a million meals, amillion meals in western North
(23:24):
Carolina since Helene.
Wow.
And it's just important to us.
The need is still there.
Yeah.
So we have to still be there.
I mean, the the donations andthe funding have long since
stopped.
Sure.
I can't leave.
There are people there thatstill need our help.
We've just made a commitmentdown in Ingram, Texas, and the
aftermath of those horriblefloods down there.
(23:46):
We're gonna build a communitykitchen in Ingram.
We're gonna stay in thatcommunity for forever.
We're gonna be a part of thatcommunity.
You you you stay where there's aneed, you invest in the people
in the community.
If it's important right afterthe storm when everyone's
watching, it has to be importanta year later when no one's
watching.
SPEAKER_01 (24:04):
And a lot of people forget because you know the next
thing has come along, or youknow, but you had to build out
infrastructure to be able to dothat, which is just insane.
And there's not a disaster allthe time, so it's not like
you're you're going somewhere.
So you guys have actually filledin by implementing other things.
Now, you said there werekitchens, like you have
permanent kitchens in cities,but you also do the food, the
(24:25):
boxes.
So, how how does that work withwithin the business?
SPEAKER_00 (24:29):
Well, the family the family grocery boxes, we keep we
keep improving those.
It's a curated box of groceries.
We've got it up to 70 servingsin a box.
Um, and and they're not uhsurplus stuff that we get off a
shelf or out of a warehouse.
We go out and purchaseeverything in there.
We put recipe cards, we havelittle spice packets we put in
(24:51):
there.
There are QR codes where theycan find other recipes because
it has to be the very best thatwe can possibly put out there.
And our family grocery boxprogram is growing incredibly.
We've we've got to find awarehouse now.
Um it's created.
SPEAKER_01 (25:06):
How long has it been going on?
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
Uh we've been doing family grocery boxes for about a
year and a half now.
SPEAKER_01 (25:11):
And it's already grown.
SPEAKER_00 (25:12):
Yeah, it was something that my wife came up
with.
All my good ideas were my wife'sto begin with.
SPEAKER_01 (25:17):
Good awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (25:18):
Yeah, I I I stole them all, right?
Um, but she was like, you know,we have to do something for
people that are going back intheir homes after a disaster.
They've lost everything in thepantry, everything in the fridge
has long since been thrown out.
Man, to go home and recharge apantry is five or six hundred
bucks.
We don't have salt.
You know, who's who's been outof work for three or four weeks
(25:39):
that was living paycheck topaycheck before that can go out
and recharge a pantry?
So it's important for us thatwhat what is the need?
How can we better serve?
Uh and family grocery boxes cameout of that.
And now it's a whole program onits own.
We're we're doing thousands ofgrocery boxes every month.
SPEAKER_01 (25:58):
That's crazy.
That's amazing.
It is.
And that is that primarily stilllocal?
Like, are you just doing that inVirginia?
Are you taking these with youwhen you go to the house?
SPEAKER_00 (26:05):
No, we just we're we're doing 200 a week down in
Ingram now for the people thatwent through the floods that are
getting back in their homes.
Um, we're still doing almost 800a month in western North
Carolina um for folks that takeback home.
And then, you know, easternKentucky from the floods three
years ago, we're still workingthere with the grocery boxes and
then here locally as well.
(26:26):
Um, it it if if there's a needand we can get to it and we have
the ability, we'll take care ofit.
unknown (26:32):
That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02 (26:33):
So your your your chef knowledge has brought you
to some really good things.
I saw some of the food you wereplating.
I did some research, of course,and a lot of the stuff that you
guys are putting out on theseessentially cardboard plates or
whatever it is they're doing arecoming out really, really nice.
I mean, you're doing a lot ofstuff.
I would imagine when you'rebuilding these trucks out,
you've got a lot of uh tiltskillets and cauldrons and and
all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (26:53):
It's a tilt skillet, baby.
Every time.
Every time.
I take everything out thekitchen, leave me with a tilt
and we're gonna make a meal.
SPEAKER_02 (26:59):
Correct.
And you can make a damn good onebecause you can start with
everything from your braisingall the way up to your your
slowing, your your jarring, youcan brown your meats, you can do
everything in that.
It's the whole thing.
You can definitely make a lot ofmeals in one tilt skillet.
SPEAKER_00 (27:11):
I've I've I've baked biscuits in a tilt skillet
because there was just nothingelse to do what, you know?
Yeah, I can imagine.
But the meals are so importantto us, and we want them to
reflect our love and our passionfor the people.
So there's always a recognizableprotein.
There's always a starch, there'salways a veg.
We bake on site.
I have two pastry chefs thattravel with us, and we we do our
(27:33):
desserts, we do our breads allon site.
Not nothing, you know, it's lovefrom the oven.
I mean smelling that.
Yeah.
It gives hope.
It does give hope.
In Asheville, uh, we wereworking, and there was a black
bear that found our dumpster,loved our dumpster, right?
And so after three weeks, threeand a half weeks, we moved to
another location.
Um, and when we moved to theother location, it was about
(27:55):
eight or nine blocks away,right?
Found it.
Second day yeah, there's blackbear is following us around.
That's about I don't know ifeverybody else is loving us, but
the wildlife is following.
I'm gonna tell you.
SPEAKER_01 (28:05):
He had a good hibernation then.
SPEAKER_02 (28:06):
Yeah, he did.
He did.
SPEAKER_01 (28:08):
He was eating good the whole time.
SPEAKER_02 (28:09):
I'll tell you what, you know, to to cook like that,
firstly, we when you loseeverything and you're losing
everything.
When a town gets shut down,you're losing everything.
You're losing the smell of gas,you're losing the smell of car
fumes, you're losing the smellof everything.
Just a normal industry that wasshut down.
Yeah.
So if you show up and you don'tknow what's going to happen next
and you're hungry and you startsmelling this food, you're gonna
(28:29):
smell that tenfold.
It's almost like driving downthe road and by a Burger King in
the winter when that cold andyou all you smell is that Burger
King.
I know exactly what you'resaying.
Yeah, yeah.
Great picture.
Yeah, so so when you're smellingthat and you're driving through
it, you know.
And if you're if you're bakingbread on top of it, yeah,
where's the disaster at thismoment?
SPEAKER_01 (28:47):
There are no disaster here.
SPEAKER_02 (28:49):
Someone's getting you good tonight.
I hope so.
That's the way you the mentalityyou guys are what you're
bringing to people.
And that's amazing.
It's amazing.
I I love having conversationswith chefs who have gone outside
of the kitchen and still createsuch an impact on people's
lives.
Because, like you said,everything we do is based around
the best celebration of us isaround a table.
Absolutely.
And um, some people are in it tomake money.
(29:10):
Making money to me always comesif you just do it right in the
first place.
If your function or your or yourmission is to bring people
around the table and love whatyou do, don't worry about the
money.
That that's gonna comenaturally.
But don't do this just to makemoney.
SPEAKER_00 (29:24):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I I agree completely.
We always say that um um moneywill follow ministry, but
ministry should never followmoney.
And and so it's like in thosefirst five years or so, I just
did it.
I just got out there and did thebest I could with what I had.
Yeah, and and kept doing it.
And the resources followed, butI had to do the work first.
(29:46):
I had to take that step of blindfaith.
SPEAKER_01 (29:49):
Yeah, but you had the faith and the tenacity to
follow through with it.
SPEAKER_00 (29:53):
I don't know that I really had the faith.
Now it's easy to say, oh yeah, Ihad the faith.
Back then I was terrified.
SPEAKER_01 (29:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (29:59):
I was terrified.
I was like, God, what do youwant me to do?
This doesn't make sense.
I can't, I can't rationalizethis.
I've got to go tell my wife thatyou've called me to mission
work.
Come on, it's just not gonnafly, man.
We both know we're using our owncredit card.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I when when when and itwas an audible call.
I mean, I actually heard Godspeak out loud to me and tell me
(30:20):
to go feed people.
Just go feed people.
In the aftermath of Katrina,that was the message I got.
I sat down with a piece of paperand I wrote down eight names of
people that I knew could do itbetter than me.
I said, God, why are you talkingto me?
Here are eight other people.
Do you need phone numbers,emails?
How can I get you in touch withthem?
Like you can you got the wrongguy.
(30:41):
I mean, you got the wrong guy.
But kicking and screaming andfighting and trying to run from
it, I couldn't.
I couldn't.
And and just to see thatobedience, I didn't have to be
smart.
I didn't have to do anything butsay yes.
Yep.
That's all I had to do was yes.
And I did that reluctantly.
(31:01):
Almost as easy as the question,are you hungry?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (31:04):
Yeah.
It's so simple, isn't it?
It is.
It is.
SPEAKER_01 (31:07):
That is amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (31:08):
People make it not simple.
That's the thing.
So that's right.
You've took it and went with itand you let the simple do the
work.
SPEAKER_01 (31:14):
Well, and now have you seen the new Netflix, the
documentary on Katrina that justcame out?
Have you seen that yet?
SPEAKER_00 (31:20):
I can't watch it.
Yeah, I was going to ask you tobe able to.
Okay.
20 years of Katrina anniversary.
I've dealt with them all andrecognized, and it's motivated
me every time.
Something about this year.
SPEAKER_01 (31:32):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:32):
I couldn't watch.
I I just I couldn't watch itthis year.
Um, so I probably will ease intoit.
Um, but it's gonna take a littlebit of time.
It was we were in New Orleansthree weeks ago.
Uh we we were looking at a placedown there to do a community
kitchen, a full-time thing.
You know, it what a perfectcircle for me to finally end up
back down here.
Um but yeah, I I maybe it'sbecause I was just there, but I
(31:57):
I just couldn't watch.
It was such a powerful moment inmy life.
Um, images on TV, my town beingtorn up and the effect that that
had on me, I I I still I I I Istill have a hard time looking
squarely at what really happenedto my town.
Yeah, yeah, it's devastating forsure.
SPEAKER_02 (32:16):
That's a and that it sits on you.
Yeah, it does.
It sits on you.
Has that has the town sincegrown back up or starting to
come up?
SPEAKER_00 (32:23):
You know, we go all the time to visit and and um it
was starting to come back.
Um you could you could feel it,you know, and then COVID hit.
Man, it was that was that waslike the blind punch coming out
of left, man.
You just didn't see it, youknow, and it completely took the
city down to nothing again, thehospitality industry,
especially.
(32:43):
And now we we we're we're justdown if it feels alive again, it
feels full again.
But you have to recognize NewOrleans still has 75% of the
population that it had beforeKatrina.
Twenty years later, thepopulation hasn't grown back in
in the city.
I mean, tourism is back,restaurants are back.
I mean, great things arehappening down there on the food
(33:05):
scene.
The hotels are back, they've allbeen renovated and freshened.
I mean, it's alive.
It's alive, right?
But there are still scars.
SPEAKER_02 (33:14):
Sure.
unknown (33:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (33:15):
Like, yeah, I can imagine so.
Well, you did an amazing thingby setting up what you did, and
if anything came of that, uh,one thing, you know, with scars
come healing.
And I think that you coming fromthat, if that's if you know, if
anything good comes from that,I'm sure other things good came
from it too.
But Mercy Chefs uh essentiallycame from that, right?
So something did come from it.
(33:36):
Good, right?
Because here you are now, andthat and that paves the way
because no matter what happens,the tra the devastation is the
devastation.
That's never gonna go away.
But what came from it on thepositive, here you are, now
you're off doing it to otherpeople and helping out there
too.
So yeah, yeah, kudos to that.
An amazing, an amazing feat.
SPEAKER_01 (33:54):
I love it.
Well, I I just I love hearing itbecause again, I remember when I
was back at the news stationwhen they'd first brought you
guys on, and this was back, Imean, 2008, 2009, somewhere
around that area.
Yeah, and I remembered seeingwhat you guys did and then
seeing it go from that to nowand being like, oh my gosh,
they're in the middle of, Imean, national coverage news,
(34:16):
seeing people that were like,that's our trip.
They're from they're from ourhometown.
Like they actually came out ofVirginia and you're everywhere.
And to see that is an incrediblething.
And I think just people beinginspired and to not be afraid of
going after things and and tohelp people.
I just I'm I'm glad you came toshare that because it's cool to
see it just grow the way that ithas because you guys do amazing
(34:37):
work and it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00 (34:38):
It's miraculous, and it's something well beyond me.
So hope you get to come out andsee us sometime.
Chef, we need to we invite youin our kitchen.
I would love to.
SPEAKER_02 (34:46):
If you're ever free, I would have to have you with
us.
Catastrophe happened for that tohappen.
So let's not confuse this,right?
All right, yeah.
But they happen.
Yeah, it's always gonna happenand it's never gonna stop.
Yeah, yeah.
So I would love to take you upon this as long as you're there
with me.
I'll be there.
Yeah.
All right.
He's still there.
SPEAKER_01 (35:04):
Well, I mean, we do get him a bed now, but he's
still at the trailer.
SPEAKER_02 (35:07):
I won't need a bed.
SPEAKER_00 (35:09):
I won't make you sleep on the floor.
I'll continue to work.
SPEAKER_01 (35:11):
It's okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (35:12):
I would love to take you up on that.
I would love to be there.
Um, matter of fact, we'll talk.
I would really want to I reallywant to take you up on that.
I would love to be a part ofthat.
Yeah, and they're something Iwould love to experience.
We'd be honored to have you inour kitchen.
That'd be one.
That'd be a good idea.
Sure, I'd love to cook somethingfor them.
That'd be fun.
That'd be amazing.
So let's line that up.
Like I said, unfortunately, forthe reasons why aren't good.
However, it's that's what you'rehere for, and that's what I want
(35:34):
to go be part of.
Yeah.
I would love to help you out andbe part of it and experience.
That'd be amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (35:37):
And how can everybody else still help?
Because I'm, I mean, I know youyou guys are, I mean, you are
cranking.
So what where can people go?
How can they help you?
What are all the ways that theycould participate?
SPEAKER_00 (35:47):
You know, the website is the best place.
First thing I want people topray for us, pray for the people
that we're serving.
That's the most important thing.
But beyond that, on the website,you can volunteer.
That's the links, that's howpeople get into our volunteer
network.
And there are secure links onthere that people that that say,
hey, I've got a little treasure.
I'd like to invest that insomething outside of my world.
(36:10):
I'd like to be a part of thatsomehow.
Not everybody can go and serveand cook like you, Chef, but
everybody, everybody can pitchin a little bit.
You need help on all fronts.
That's what keeps us rolling.
SPEAKER_01 (36:20):
Okay.
So and the website, go ahead andmercychefs.com.
SPEAKER_00 (36:22):
It's pretty easy to remember.
Source of all information,mercychefs.com.
Perfect.
SPEAKER_02 (36:26):
And that'll link you to everything.
SPEAKER_00 (36:28):
Everything.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (36:29):
Wonderful.
Well, it's been an honor havingyou here.
I know.
It's and it's it's honorablewhat you do and what you've
created and all your team andteams throughout the world.
We appreciate you.
And from a culinary standpoint,I find it fascinating because
what you're doing is on a onthat level of mask production in
a good quality.
I know what it takes, and Ican't wait to be part of it.
I would definitely want to comesee it firsthand.
SPEAKER_00 (36:49):
It is great to be with you guys today.
Thank you so much for thehospital.
SPEAKER_01 (36:53):
Cheers to the next 30 million meals.
SPEAKER_00 (36:55):
Oh my gosh.
I'm tired.
I'm tired.
SPEAKER_01 (36:59):
Maybe 10 million right now.
We'll go for that.
SPEAKER_02 (37:01):
Cool.
Well, ciao for now.
Thanks for coming.
Glad to be with you.
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