November 8, 2025 • 42 mins
The primary focus of today's discourse revolves around the invaluable contributions of Operation Barbecue Relief, led by Stan Hayes. We delve into the organization's extensive efforts to provide sustenance in the wake of disasters, having distributed approximately 1.6 million meals to affected communities over the past year alone. Furthermore, we explore the forthcoming barbecue festival at the Alana Casino, where Stan and his team will impart knowledge on the intricacies of barbecue vending, thereby enhancing the skills of aspiring vendors. This episode also highlights the importance of engaging volunteers and fostering a sense of community through culinary initiatives. We invite you to join us as we examine these significant developments within the realm of barbecue relief and community service.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Operation Barbecue Relief
- Alienate Casino
- Weber
- Traeger
- Weston Kia
- Painted Hills
- Heritage Steel
- Pig Powder
- Sonny's Barbecue
- Bob Woodruff Foundation
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's time for Barbecue Nationwith jt.
So fire up your grill, lightthe charcoal, and get your smoker
cooking.
Now from the Turn It Go Burnit studios in Portland, here's jt.
This is an encore.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the nation.
I'm JT along with my co hostLeanne Whippin.
Hall of Famer.
There'll be new news next weekabout hall of Fame inductees this
(00:22):
year too exciting.
So that's exciting.
Coming to you from the turn atDump Barnett Studios in Portland
and Tampa today, we've got afriend of the show and we've been
on here a number of times, andit's always great information.
Stan Hayes from OperationBarbecue Relief.
Stan and his crew are comingup in my neck of the woods in June,
(00:44):
but they've got other stuffgoing on, so we're going to cover
everything for the next hour.
Stan, welcome.
Thank you, guys.
I appreciate you having meback on.
No problem.
So let's take it from the top.
You're coming back up here in June.
I think it's the 14th.
That area working withAlienate Casino, they have a big
(01:04):
barbecue fest a lna does.
And Stan's been part of it nowfor several years with obr.
And it's kind of interestingwhat you do, and I'm just going to
let you tell us about it.
Yeah, well, you know, we wereone of the, you know, inaugural groups,
if you will, that were part.
That was part of the barbecue fest.
And what we ended up, youknow, we've done vending, we've done
(01:28):
classes there, we've done demos.
And, and this year, insteadof, you know, doing the same class
that we've been doing, like abarbecue academy one day class on
a couple of different meets,you know, one of the things that
we've been hearing is, man,I'd like to learn more about vending
or, hey, how you guys do this.
And we thought, why don't weput together a class, the business
(01:49):
of barbecue vending.
You know, what it takes to,you know, really put on, you know,
and go to an event, you know,so what we're going to do is we're
going to talk to them about,you know, how we price things, how
we, you know, how we figureout how much, you know, we're going
to take based on what theybelieve the, the attendance is going
(02:09):
to be for an event and reallyget into, you know, how we plan for
it before we ever get there.
You know, what we're lookingto buy, you know, why we choose,
why we're choosing what we'rechoosing for the event.
And you know, we're going todo, you know, this year we're going
to do two different meats, youknow, for this.
And, and we were asked to doribs as one of them pork ribs and
(02:32):
put on the show because whenwe, when you do pork ribs, you know,
you just can't pull them out,slice them and hand them to them.
You got to have the, the grillout front and caramelize them and
do do some of that show withit to really bring people over.
But if we can get beef ribs, Idon't know that somebody's going
to spend the amount of moneyyou want for a beef rib, but man,
they make great sliders too.
(02:53):
So we're looking at doing abeef slider.
We're not sure what it's goingto be, whether it'll be that, whether
it'll be brisket, whetherit'll be chuck roast or, you know,
beef clod.
I mean, it could be, you know,and we're looking at that.
You know, obviously we'retrying to use our relationships and
get everything donated.
So all the proceeds benefitthe organization.
(03:17):
Right.
You know, Ala NA has beengreat to work with over the years
and they really, you know,they're really working with us to
make this happen.
I'm doing this with a team of volunteers.
I'm not going to bring in anyof my team this year.
I'm bringing in some of thepeople that we've been training in
our lead positions that wantto do more on disaster.
(03:37):
So these are, these are peoplethat have already stepped up to do
more.
And so it's a little bit of athank you, but a little bit of, hey,
thank you with work involved.
Right.
And for us, you know, theywill, we'll go through that business
of barbecue piece, but thenwe're going to get them hands on,
you know, we'll tell them whyand show them why we do what we do
(03:58):
around.
Like I said, you know, to me,at a festival like that, if you're
not out front with a, with abig party grill and based in the
ribs so they can smell it, seeit, you know, and then passing those
ribs over to get cut for thosepeople, you're missing out on an
opportunity because that drawspeople in at those events, you know,
(04:21):
and then the little thingsthat we've learned over the years
about, about this, we want tobe able to give to them.
So, yeah, it's, it's, it's agood way to get our.
Get volunteers and get people engaged.
But it's also a way thatpeople that may have interest in
vending and getting moreinvolved in barbecue of how to do
that can learn.
I think there's two importantthings you need to include in this.
(04:45):
They need to bring two books,their checkbook and their prayer
book.
Because if you get the numberswrong, you know what that means?
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
And we're going off ofexperience because we've done this.
Now, the vending side of it,like, I think three out of five years,
this will be the third one.
(05:06):
And we know what our numbershave been in the past and we know
what other vendors did like.
And we also.
Last year they got caught off guard.
Last year was one of the yearsthat I didn't vend and they got caught
off guard because Ala na gaveall their high rollers like a 50
seed, you know, because theydo it all off of a little wristband,
(05:27):
you know, where you tap andpay well.
They gave all of those highrollers, I'll call them a dollar
fifty, you know, like credit.
Right, right.
And then, you know, they hooktheir credit card up to it.
I mean, they flew throughmoney because the way you can just
go around tapping stuff andtapping for beer, tapping for food,
tapping for this.
(05:47):
But what they weren'tanticipating is they didn't know
about that 50 bump.
And that was about 200 andsomething people that got that.
And vendors were flying.
I mean, food was flying off.
I, I was sitting there behindthe scenes with our class last year
grilling extra tri tips forone of the groups because they were
(06:11):
so far behind that they neededproteins, you know, and they were
bringing them over and we'regrilling them and having the students
help with it, you know, to, tokeep up with the demand.
Right.
So, I mean, it, it's always alogistical nightmare.
You know, I, I'm actually, youknow, right now I'm using their equipment
(06:33):
and they don't have a lot ofbig equipment.
So I'm going to be pre cookingsome stuff, you know.
And you know, the nice thingabout combi ovens is, man, you can't
tell the difference when youreheat something in the combi versus,
you know, other other ways.
But, you know, I'm still thekind of guy that would like to be
pulling off ribs fresh, youknow, throwing them on that grill
(06:54):
and doing that.
So I'm working to try to findNoel Hickory up in that area that
we can get up in there to bein our spot.
We're, you know, we're.
Excuse Me, there's a sayingaround here.
It's been here for years.
Keep Portland weird.
And there's merit to that on alot of different issues and levels.
(07:15):
But we're not huge, hugebarbecue country like Kansas City.
Oh, I know.
Yeah.
And so sometimes it's hard.
I mean there's some vendorsthat sell, sell those types of cookers,
but they're not always readilyavailable up here.
I mean if you, if you wanted aWeber kettle or even a Traeger, you're
(07:37):
in the home turf right here.
You know what I mean?
So yeah, it's tough on that.
The, and they've moved it upthis year, haven't they?
Date wise from previous.
So they, it's, it's reallymoving it back to where you it was
in the earlier years.
Okay.
Last year they, they were,they were way, you know, they moved
back over a month, about sixweeks further back.
(07:59):
And, and it's, you know, justthings that are going on.
They've had a lot of, gonethrough a lot of management change
at a, from the casino side andlooking at it and, and you, you'll
notice this year's BarbecueFest does not have the slew of celebrity
(08:23):
chefs that it has in the past.
You know, it's got, it's gotsome influencers and it has some,
you know, people that, thathave, you know, big networks and
stuff.
But it doesn't, it's not the,you know, you're not going to see
Michael Simon or.
Well, at least I've been toldyou're not going to see Michael Simon
or, or Jet Tila or theseothers that they've been bringing
(08:43):
in over the last few years asthey gotten this has gotten larger
and larger.
I mean they, they're expectingover 5,000 people between Saturday
and Sunday and they're,they're four hour slots.
So you buy, you know, you buyyour ticket for a four hour slot
to come there and it'll beSunday, you know, Saturday afternoon.
(09:03):
Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon.
So.
Well, it's a, it's a big event.
I mean it's turned into a bigevent like that.
They're still doing thebarbecue contest, you know, and,
and they've expanded that to,to, for bigger space to bring in
more teams and, and they wantto grow that more as well.
(09:27):
Yeah, well, they've got themoney to do it.
Why did they cut the celebrity chefs?
They did, they didn't, theydidn't see the, the need for at least
the full number of them anddidn't see a, you know, the, the
the reciprocal increase in, inattendance for having those big names.
(09:51):
And, and so they're like, hey,why are we spending money to bring
these people, big money tobring these people in when we're
not seeing like a huge spikein the numbers?
Because we have these people.
And, and so they've beenplaying with them with different
festivals and not having asmany of the big names and numbers
haven't gone down.
People for the food, for the experience.
(10:12):
And not necessarily, you know,because somebody like Michael Simon
or Aaron Mayer is getting upon stage and doing a demo.
Yeah, yeah, and I canunderstand that.
I mean, it's, it's, it's greatto have them.
They're a wealth ofinformation and personality and all
that.
(10:33):
But again, that kind of keepPortland weird crowd even though
it's across the river inVancouver, if you will.
But you know what I mean, it'sjust those things have never been
huge, huge draws.
Yeah.
And you know, those guysaren't cheap.
I mean, and gals, you know,you know, and, and for me it was
great because I, I, I've metmany of them.
(10:55):
We've had a chance of, of, youknow, building relationships with
many of them so I get to seethem at these events.
But for me, that's not why I'm there.
You know, I'm there because Iget a chance to work with, you know,
first responders and veteransand, you know, and the business of
barbecue class.
We're still focused on, youknow, trying to get the veterans
(11:17):
and first responders aroundthe area that are interested to come
out, but we're opening it up alittle bit, you know, because we're
also trying to build our baseof volunteers.
We're going to take a break.
We're going to be back withStan Hayes, Leanne and myself right
here on the Nation right after this.
Stay with us.
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(11:59):
Hey everybody, it's Jeff here.
I want to tell you aboutsomething really cool.
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I just got mine.
I do a lot of cooking and it'sgot five ply construction.
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It's got all the great stuff.
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(12:29):
This is an encore.
Welcome back to the Nation.
I'm J.T.
along with Ms. Whippen.
She's busy, this boy.
She's just trying to get heron the phone someday, I'll tell you
that.
It's tough out there.
If you want to follow theshow, we're on all the social media
platforms and all the podcastplatforms and excuse me, Leanne has
(12:50):
her Instagram, which she's gotabout 9 million people that follow
her on that.
I've got mine, which I havethree, and of course Facebook and
Twitter and all that.
So we're pretty easy to find.
Like I said, we've got StanHayes with us.
Stan's been on the show anumber of times from Operation Barbecue
Relief, the Carolinas, thestorms they had there, all through
(13:14):
that swath of the south.
And I followed it.
You know, I watched your postsand stuff, how you were, you were
responding to things.
This isn't so much about theinstantaneous response, but are you
still in some of those areason occasion helping or what's going
on back there?
Yeah, so especially in westernNorth Carolina, we have, you know,
(13:36):
we were there for over a month.
We left, but we've been backsubsequently probably five or six
different times to dodifferent things in different communities.
Most recently over Easter, we,we did meals for four different communities,
sort of centralized it in oneof those communities and then sent
it out to three additionalcommunities to do a few thousand
(13:58):
meals, you know, to get out tothose people.
Because it's amazing that, youknow, it's a double edged sword really
for, you know, many of themlive there because they want to be
left alone.
Right, right.
You know, they, they, theydon't want government interaction.
They don't want, you know,sometimes people interaction.
But when something like thishappens, you know, we have to do
(14:20):
better.
You know, I mean, you stillhave people living in tents, they
live through the winter, intense.
I mean, how, how can that be,you know, with, with everything that
we have today?
And, and so we, we did it.
You know, when you saw theresponse to the LA fires was greater
than what happened in westernNorth Carolina, you know, it just,
(14:42):
that's politics at work.
Right.
And, and I'm not a politicalperson, I don't like to play games
like that, but I think it wasjust glaringly obvious what was happening.
And, and we were in la.
I mean, don't get me wrong, wewent out there because there was
a huge need and we were, youknow, we were asked to come out and,
but it doesn't Compare in my, in.
(15:03):
In my eyes of, you know, whenyou look at what happened out there
and, and we'll continuethrough this year, you know, probably
every other month, almostevery third month, we've got something
planned to go back in thereand do thousands of meals, you know,
with different groups and, andteaming up with groups to.
To continue to help up.
Because it's going to beprobably two years before many of
(15:24):
these people, their home, if,if they have ever built.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, you're.
You're way south from where Iam and, and from Stan there.
Are they on the local news?
Are they covering the peoplein Carolinas or.
(15:47):
Occasionally, but, you know,occasionally they're covering la.
Occasionally they're covering us.
And I mean, my daughter'shouse just got imploded two days
ago and the storm was quite awhile ago.
So, I mean, it's gonna be ayear before she even gets another
house.
So it's.
(16:09):
It's touch and go with the news.
It's, as you said, it's kindof political.
I have family in NorthCarolina, and I know how devastating
it was, and I feel that theygot slighted.
Well, for what they went through.
Even me sitting 3,000 milesaway, I thought they've always, they've
kind of turned their back onthem or just, you know, they came
in for the.
(16:30):
I promise not to get toopolitical here, folks, but the powers
that be at the time came infor the photo ops and yeah, we'll
do this.
But it took a while to evenget them there and they did that
and then they left and then itjust kind of sat.
I think the most importantthing about the Carolinas is those
people didn't have insurancebecause they didn't expect this to
(16:51):
happen to them.
Whereas in Florida, you know,they have insurance or they should.
You know what I mean?
So when they lose something inthe Carolinas, it's not coming back
to them.
They lost it.
And I feel like that focus hasbeen lost.
You have a lot of generationalhomes that were paid off, you know,
handed down from family tofamily in some of those hollers and
(17:15):
some of those areas aroundthere that, you know, they didn't
see a need to have insurancebecause, you know, most people think
of insurance for that, youknow, tragedy.
Right.
And it, and sometimes itbecomes, you know, that cost benefit.
Is it.
Is there a benefit to havingit or not?
Unfortunately.
Right, right.
(17:36):
And when, when things are paidoff, you don't have a mortgage company
that tells you you have tohave it.
You know, Right.
So.
But again, it is.
There's a lot going on now,and there's a lot more people involved
and, and other groups thatwe've worked with, that we've gone
back and worked with, youknow, are helping in those efforts
(17:58):
to get people, you know, alittle bit more situated.
You know, we worked with agroup that I think in one weekend
brought in a.
They brought in a group ofAmish from Pennsylvania, Ohio area.
I saw that.
Yeah.
And they built 20 tiny homesin a weekend.
(18:19):
It's amazing.
And, and I'm like, look, thisis what humanity is about right here.
You know, it wasn't thegovernment, it wasn't the state.
You know, it was non profitorganizations, church groups, civic
groups coming together to say,you know what, we're gonna have to
take this in our own hands.
Right, Right.
(18:40):
No, I, I saw those news clipson that, Stan.
And you know, those Amishfolks, they got, they can build stuff.
You know, we all know thatthey can build stuff, and they could
do it.
You know, they raise a barn inan afternoon, a huge barn, you know,
and they got the roof andsiding on by the end of the day.
Maybe the interior isn'tfinished, but, you know, you.
(19:03):
It's, it's up.
It's tangible at that point.
And I saw those clips aboutthe Amish coming into North Carolina
and building those littlehomes and stuff, and they were just
knocking it out.
You know, I thought that was impressive.
We're going to have to take abreak here in a minute, but what
I want to talk to you about isI think you came on the show the
(19:26):
first time, what, six yearsago or something?
It's been a while.
It's been a while.
Yeah.
And you were really startingto hit your stride with OBR then,
you know, and if you don'tknow what that stands for, it's Operation
Barbecue Relief.
All right, but when we comeback, I want to talk to you about
the expansion.
And now you have what I wantto say.
(19:48):
Satellite divisions.
I'm going to let you explainit better than that around the country
where you can, you know, yourresponse can be as soon as they open
the gate, we can be there type thing.
All right, we're going to takea break.
We're going to be back withStan Hayes, Leanne and myself on
the Nation in just a second.
Got to listen to thecommercials, though.
But we'll be right back.
(20:19):
Hey, everybody, it's jt And Ihave eaten, if you've ever looked
at me, you know that.
But I have eaten.
Seafood all over the world.
And I can tell you there's noplace better than here in Oregon
and our Dungeness crab.
If you want to learn moreabout Oregon Dungeness crab, just
go to oregondungeness.org findout how to cook it, how to catch
it, where to buy it, and thesustainability of what they're doing
(20:42):
there in the Oregon Crab Commission.
Check it out.
This is an encore.
Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm Jason.
One of the things we mentionevery week on this show has to do
(21:03):
with this blonde lady with astick growing out of the back of
her head right now.
If you can see her back picture.
Yeah, I was in a steak kind of mood.
Yeah, it's a beautiful looking steak.
Pig powder.
Love pig powder.
She's going to give us anupdate on that because it's a great
product.
You can go to pigpowder.comand order it.
(21:24):
And Leanne's the only one onthe show I ever let do this, so.
Yeah, and I appreciate that greatly.
It is available on Amazon as well.
And it is a rev, an awardwinning rub.
And you hear award winning alot with food and anything.
But it did win best rub on theplanet, which is a very big award.
It can be used on pork andchicken and french fries and baked
(21:47):
beans.
It's very versatile.
Jeff, you've used it a lot.
Yes.
And then we also have a spicypig powder coming out and that will
be on the site as soon as Ireceive it.
And some labeling changes, too.
I'm even going to use itFriday on a, on a live show.
Oh, good.
I'll tell you what I'm doing then.
We'll get back to Stan here.
(22:08):
I'm doing a, a grilled chickenthigh with basil and then some mango
peach salsa on rice.
And yeah, it's one of those things.
I went, I went to the fridgeand I went, I didn't plan anything
for dinner.
And so I yelled in the frontroom, Shell just got home.
(22:28):
I said, hey, how about somechicken and rice?
And she goes, sure.
Well, we had not to belaborthis, but we'd gone to Costco and
got one of those big peachmango salsa containers I don't know
if they have in your area, butthey have them up here.
So I did that and I got tothinking about it and I thought,
I can do that.
And so I used a little pigpowder on it.
Yeah, pig powder wouldcomplement peaches, mango, anything
(22:49):
like that.
Yeah, it's perfect.
So go to Amazon or go tobigpowder.com I'll show you.
I'll send you a picture of thehero shot when we're done.
See it.
I want to see it.
Anyway, we're talking withStan Hayes today from Operation Barbecue
Relief.
And as we said going into thebreak, when Stan first came on the
show they were just reallygaining traction and he'd been, he's
(23:13):
put a lot of years in on this.
So but now they not only havethat, they have their retreat farm
if you will, where they cantail with veterans and, and as you
know, you hear me rail aboutit a lot that we need to do more
for our veterans and Stan hasfollowed those leads.
(23:33):
So bring us up to speed fromwhere you started stan, to where
OBR is now.
Well, you know, this is our14th year actually tomorrow I believe.
So we're right on, on that,you know, already talking about 15
years what we're going to dofor a little celebration.
(23:55):
But as you look back at wherewe've come, you know, from, from
the days of a volunteer group,you know, caravanning around the
country to, to major disastersand feeding communities to, you know,
last year we did 24 differentdisaster events across the country.
Just shy of 1.6 million mealsprovided to those communities after
(24:17):
disaster strikes and firstresponders and groups that come to
help them.
But we did 100 non disasterevents last year across the country
to support our veterans, ourfirst responders, communities in
need outside of disaster insome way, fashion or form.
I mean one example is, and wejust finished, it was at the beginning
(24:39):
of May is InternationalFirefighters Day.
And on that day three yearsago we started a small little movement
of hey, let's go out and feedthe firemen at firehouses on that
day.
And we did it in Vancouverthree years ago was one of the first
areas I just happened to beout there around that time and was
(25:02):
able to go help feed and waspart of this event.
Well now as you move forwardthis year we did over 180 different
firehouses and 30 differentcities and 21 different states.
Wow.
So in three years thatmovement is just jumping up and you've
got, we've got companies andgroups coming on board.
(25:23):
Leanne down in your area,Sonny's Barbecue jumped in and the
Southeast and said we want tobe part of this.
We love this idea ofcelebrating our heroes, you know,
on a day like this.
And, and for us, you know,this is how we keep our, you know,
our volunteers that we spend alot of time, effort, they're the
backbone of what we do.
(25:44):
This is how we keep themengaged by getting to do things in
their own community that, youknow, for their friends, their neighbors
and, and such.
And, and so it's, it's justbeen a great thing for growth wise.
It's been a great thing for engagement.
But more importantly, it givesa lot of ownership to those individuals
to help with the brand intheir community.
(26:07):
Sure.
How you've got a lot of peoplethat are members, if you will, of
obr.
How has that grown over the years?
I mean, you just gave theexample of Sunny's Barbecue helping
you with the first responders.
Sure.
But.
And I was thinking while youwere talking, I think it's probably
closer to eight years ago.
You were on the show.
First time this show's been.
(26:29):
Wow, we've been on the air.
We're going into the 11thyear, so it's been a while.
Anyway, I know like Meatheadis a supporter, we do stuff here,
so on and so forth.
But how has that grown?
You know, by adding that thefirst responders and veteran component
(26:52):
and even active military, it'sgrowing us into new verticals out
there because there's morecompanies that want to support those
than there are just thosesupporting disaster relief.
And then there's more foundations.
I mean we, we've just, youknow, started working with and, and
(27:13):
been been in the, in the worksfor quite some time.
But the Bob Woodrufffoundation is one of the biggest
ones out there that focuses onfirst responders, you know, veteran
groups and.
And such like that for.
And, and they've become sortof what a gatekeeper, I guess might
be the best way to put it forso many foundations that if you aren't
(27:35):
sort of an approvedorganization with the Woodruff foundation,
you aren't going to beeligible for a foundational grant.
That's like, it's like a weedout question.
If you're not a part of the.
They call it got your sixmember, then you, you don't even
(27:56):
qualify.
It's just like, yep, that'sjust a weed out.
You're done.
Yeah.
And you know, it's taken us awhile to, to get to there and understand
it and, and be able to getthrough that.
But that's just a new thingfor us.
That's a new avenue, it's anew relationship.
But that relationship is theywant to support these groups that
make it to that point.
And you know, I was with agentleman yesterday who's a brand
(28:18):
new member as well and he'salready seeing benefits from it.
He trains therapy dogs forveterans for PTSD and anxiety and
stuff like that.
And he has a tremendous facility.
(28:39):
They're growing leaps andbounds and they're a couple months
ahead of us in becoming a member.
But we just happened to betalking about it yesterday, how it's
already, that relationship'spaying off and each one of them is
like that.
Right.
I mean, the number ofcompanies, it's amazing.
You know, after 14 years, we,we have some of the, you know, same
(29:02):
people that we had in thatfirst year, second year, as we started
growing.
Yeah.
And still right beside us,still promoting, you know, how we
do good in the community and,and have deepened their relationship
with us.
How do you feel at the end ofthe day?
It's kind of an abstract question.
Exhausted.
(29:22):
Exhausted.
Exhausted.
You know, I'm down here at thecamp right now.
We just did a, we did.
Our Monday was our annual golf fundraiser.
Huge success until about, youknow, about 4 o' clock in the afternoon
when a, you know, massivestorm came in.
So, you know, only about athird of the field actually finished
(29:42):
18 holes.
But there wasn't anybody complaining.
I mean, it was.
Yeah, when you have a golftournament, you have seven different
chefs on holes around the golfcart course putting out fresh, you
know, you know, handheld itemsfor the golfers.
And, and if there's not food,there's booze.
You know, everybody had agreat time.
(30:02):
And then we took and, and wedecided, hey, let's get some of these
people that are coming in fromout of town.
Let's get them down to the camp.
So we did a VIP one day campexperience yesterday.
It had a small number of themstayed overnight because of their
travel and left this morning.
But it gave us a chance toshowcase the property.
(30:23):
But they all got to, you know,with Johnny, I, my, you know, chef
get to sit down and they gotto break down a, you know, whole
chicken to do a half chicken.
They all got to, you know,hear about it, watch them do it,
then go do it themselves.
And that really, you know, andthen get into the fun part of.
(30:45):
All right, how am I going toseason this?
What am I going to use?
Right.
Pig powder.
Pig powder, yeah.
Right.
You know, I'm, you know, we'regoing to hit up Leanne after this
to get something down herebecause we do, we have a little bit
of, we have like a, a littlepantry there of different spices.
So, and, and that's part ofthe culinary therapy when you think
about it.
That's the creative side ofthe brain that if you are painting
(31:05):
and you're trying to decidewhat color you want to paint something
or what you want to put inthere, what kind of flower you're
going to do or whatever it is.
Well, it's the same thing.
How do I want to, how do Iwant to season this?
Do I want to season?
Do I want sweet?
Do I want savory?
Do I want, you know, do I want heat?
And, you know, those are, youknow, it's engaging the same, same
part of the brain that youwould if you were doing art therapy
(31:29):
or music therapy.
It's just food, you know, andthe biggest distinction between all
of them is everybody has to eat.
So at the end of the day, youknow, it's not just the culinary
therapy is not justtherapeutic for them.
It's life skills, you know, ona grill and smoker for people.
And, you know, we had peoplethat were, you know, gung ho, people
(31:50):
that were really ginger asthey're trying to get through, you
know, cutting the backbone outof a chicken for the first time ever
or something.
But everybody had a blast.
And then they, at the end,they're sharing their chicken, you
know, saying, hey, you shouldtry my chicken.
Here, let me try some of yours.
And it's that, you know,food's the greatest unifier in the
world.
Right?
We're going to take a break.
(32:11):
We're going to come back withStan Hayes, Operation Barbecue Relief
and Ms. Whippen hall of Famer.
And me, I'm just a mic jockey.
We'll be right back.
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Hey, everybody, it's jt.
You know, I talk about PaintedHills all the time and we always
say beef the way nature intended.
(32:52):
But it's more than thatbecause each bite of Painted Hills
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You won't regret it.
Hey, everybody, J.T.
Here.
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(33:38):
This is an encore.
Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT along with LeanneWhippen and Stan Hayes.
I was Leanne.
I flashed on something here.
This is what, your third yearsitting in that chair?
Yeah.
I'm pretty sure Stan has readthe label of pig powder, though,
not to belabor the point, butwhen he was talking about savory
(33:59):
and sweet with a little heat,I mean, I was like, I'm thinking
that that's right on your label.
I'm gonna send Stan some so hecan have it at his camp and put it
in his pantry.
I want to come down.
I want to come down theresometime, Stan, if you're available,
and we can hook up, and I wantto see that camp.
And because I like to do allthose activities.
(34:21):
Hunting, fishing, you know,golfing, those.
That's kind of in mywheelhouse now.
What do you have on the agendagoing forward?
I know we talked about theevent coming up at Ala NA in June
and that, but what other kindof static events do you have on the
agenda for, say, the next four months?
So we have so many eventsthat, you know, one.
(34:45):
I start cutting them offabout, you know, about August.
They have to be local, standalone.
That doesn't take any.
You know, is being done by alocal person with their own equipment.
Because once we start gettinginto the height of hurricane season,
I'm not going to tie upequipment for that, But I would bet
(35:05):
you we have.
Between now and then, we'vegot over 20 events already on the
calendar.
I mean, I'm.
I'm doing.
In one week, I'm doing threedifferent events.
Coming up at the beginning ofJune, I'm doing the.
The National High SchoolBarbecue Championship.
We're going to do a meal forall the kids and their families coming
(35:27):
up to Kansas City, becauseit's being hosted up here in Kansas
City.
So, you know, I offered.
Since it's our hometown, wemight as well show them a little
hospitality because there's alot of kids from Texas, Oklahoma.
There's a team from Florida, Ibelieve, coming up this year for
it.
And as it continues to grow,that's the future of my volunteer
(35:48):
base, is those kids.
So I want them to know who we are.
I want them to know what we doand be able to talk to them about
how it can impact what they'redoing today, can impact people in
the future.
And so that's an opportunity,you know, and then that same week,
I'm doing a thing withNational Beef.
(36:08):
You know, we're just gettingmore and more, you know, involved
with events.
And in all of those, I thinkwe've got a couple of, you know,
we've done already this yearseveral reserve units where they're.
They've been called up and areleaving the country for deployment.
(36:30):
And we're fortunate enough tobe able to give them a little celebration
with their families beforethey leave.
At the same time, you know,every time we do that, we offer to
do the homecoming, you know,and so we have some that are now
coming full circle this summerto do some homecoming barbecue for
those reserve units that havebeen called up and been away from
(36:53):
home for, you know, some, someof the.
Man, some of these are longdeployments now, 15 months away from
home.
Yeah, and.
And those are, those are thefun things, right?
Because disasters aren't fun.
Disasters are, you know, thatnecessary evil out there where, you
know, you have to, you needsomebody out there providing a good
(37:13):
hot meal to people on theirworst day.
Where do you keep all your equipment?
Is it scattered about?
So we have.
Yes and no.
I mean, so we have ourwarehouse there in Tampa, you've
been to before, and we've gota small amount of equipment down
there.
We've got equipment in.
(37:36):
Our biggest warehouse spacenow is no longer Kansas City.
It's actually East Tennessee.
And that's partially becausethe people I have there that work
on the program side,operational side, but I can get so
much more per square foot inJohnson City, Tennessee than I can
(37:56):
anywhere around the KansasCity metro area.
Anywhere around.
I mean, I don't think inFlorida I can touch it.
You know, the space that we have.
And then Dallas, you know, theDallas area is, is the fourth location
which we've moved stuff and,and most recently we, you know, we've
consolidated some of our otherlocations, freezer storage space
(38:19):
and everything.
You know, we warehouse around400,000 servings of protein at any
given time to, to ensure thatwhen we, when a disaster strikes,
we have the protein on hand tobe able to serve those communities.
So.
And there's no place that wecan have that just in one place,
(38:41):
you know, so we, we do havemultiple locations there between
Kansas City and Dallas right now.
But we're adding our ownfreezer storage in East Tennessee.
There'll be about, you know,about a.
Enough for a tractor trailerload to start out with.
We've got a couple of minutesleft here.
Stan, do you, do you, as youknow, hurricane season is coming,
(39:05):
do you ramp up your, yourprotein storage in cold storage and
that, I mean, do you, youknow, it's kind of like projecting
the futures market.
Yeah, it's like vending.
Yeah.
So, so what we do is, youknow, we ensure that we're over that,
(39:27):
you know, 400, 000 mark tostart with in, in there.
But we're in contact with the,those companies that support us,
you know, and, and they can'tgive it to, for, for free every time.
Right, right.
But they give a good portionof it.
We try to get that, the freeand get that into storage as, you
know, when storage opens up orwhen, you know, before this ever
(39:49):
happens.
But it, you know, it's easierto buy even if it's at a highly reduced
cost and get a whole truckloadbrought in to backfill.
Right.
Fairly quickly.
And so now when you, you know,we did between Hurricane Helene and
Hurricane Milton, it was likejust under 1.4 million meals.
(40:12):
You know, the majority ofthose in Florida, across the state,
you, you think about that andyou try to work the math backwards
and I'm not, I'm not near.
I don't have enough toes andfingers to, to figure that all out.
Yeah, but we, we, you know,when you look at that, we're buying
a tremendous amount and, and,and we keep, we don't keep quite
(40:32):
that many, you know, sides.
Obviously we don't have number10 cans to match 400000 servings
because we can get that alittle easier.
But we have, you know, we havemore than a tractor trailer load
that's going to be rolling andof number 10 cans.
But you know, we startedadding more to our arsenal so we
can do more diversified typemeals when we get in there.
(40:54):
Things that can be puttogether so much faster than barbecue.
Right.
Stan Hayes from OBR OperationBarbecue Relief.
Stan, where can direct peopleto where they can find you on your
websites and social media, et cetera.
Yeah.
So website is obr.org justnice sweet, short.
(41:15):
And you can donate, you canvolunteer right from the homepage.
There's two different buttons there.
And then all of our socialmedia is all OPBBQ Relief.
Stan, thank you so much as always.
You're a wealth of information.
I really admire what you doout there, bud.
It's terrific.
Again, thank you guys forhaving me on.
(41:37):
No problem.
We'll be back next week.
Don't know where Leanne'sgonna be.
I don't know where I'm gonna be.
But we'll be and go up to theALNA in June and see Stan.
And if you live in thePortland area or Seattle, come on
down and we'll do then.
Until then, I'm jt.
Thanks for listening, thanksfor watching.
And go out, have somebarbecue, have some fun, and remember
(42:00):
our motto, turn it, don't burn it.
Take care, everybody.
Barbecue Nation is produced byJTSD LLC Productions in association
with Salem Media Group.
All rights Dessert.
It's time for Barbecue Nationwith jt.
So fire up your grill, lightthe charcoal, and get your smoker
cooking.
Now from the Turn It Go Burnit studios in Portland, here's jt.
This is an encore.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the nation.
I'm JT along with my co hostLeanne Whippin.
Hall of Famer.
There'll be new news next weekabout hall of Fame inductees this
(00:22):
year too exciting.
So that's exciting.
Coming to you from the turn atDump Barnett Studios in Portland
and Tampa today, we've got afriend of the show and we've been
on here a number of times, andit's always great information.
Stan Hayes from OperationBarbecue Relief.
Stan and his crew are comingup in my neck of the woods in June,
(00:44):
but they've got other stuffgoing on, so we're going to cover
everything for the next hour.
Stan, welcome.
Thank you, guys.
I appreciate you having meback on.
No problem.
So let's take it from the top.
You're coming back up here in June.
I think it's the 14th.
That area working withAlienate Casino, they have a big
(01:04):
barbecue fest a lna does.
And Stan's been part of it nowfor several years with obr.
And it's kind of interestingwhat you do, and I'm just going to
let you tell us about it.
Yeah, well, you know, we wereone of the, you know, inaugural groups,
if you will, that were part.
That was part of the barbecue fest.
And what we ended up, youknow, we've done vending, we've done
(01:28):
classes there, we've done demos.
And, and this year, insteadof, you know, doing the same class
that we've been doing, like abarbecue academy one day class on
a couple of different meets,you know, one of the things that
we've been hearing is, man,I'd like to learn more about vending
or, hey, how you guys do this.
And we thought, why don't weput together a class, the business
(01:49):
of barbecue vending.
You know, what it takes to,you know, really put on, you know,
and go to an event, you know,so what we're going to do is we're
going to talk to them about,you know, how we price things, how
we, you know, how we figureout how much, you know, we're going
to take based on what theybelieve the, the attendance is going
(02:09):
to be for an event and reallyget into, you know, how we plan for
it before we ever get there.
You know, what we're lookingto buy, you know, why we choose,
why we're choosing what we'rechoosing for the event.
And you know, we're going todo, you know, this year we're going
to do two different meats, youknow, for this.
And, and we were asked to doribs as one of them pork ribs and
(02:32):
put on the show because whenwe, when you do pork ribs, you know,
you just can't pull them out,slice them and hand them to them.
You got to have the, the grillout front and caramelize them and
do do some of that show withit to really bring people over.
But if we can get beef ribs, Idon't know that somebody's going
to spend the amount of moneyyou want for a beef rib, but man,
they make great sliders too.
(02:53):
So we're looking at doing abeef slider.
We're not sure what it's goingto be, whether it'll be that, whether
it'll be brisket, whetherit'll be chuck roast or, you know,
beef clod.
I mean, it could be, you know,and we're looking at that.
You know, obviously we'retrying to use our relationships and
get everything donated.
So all the proceeds benefitthe organization.
(03:17):
Right.
You know, Ala NA has beengreat to work with over the years
and they really, you know,they're really working with us to
make this happen.
I'm doing this with a team of volunteers.
I'm not going to bring in anyof my team this year.
I'm bringing in some of thepeople that we've been training in
our lead positions that wantto do more on disaster.
(03:37):
So these are, these are peoplethat have already stepped up to do
more.
And so it's a little bit of athank you, but a little bit of, hey,
thank you with work involved.
Right.
And for us, you know, theywill, we'll go through that business
of barbecue piece, but thenwe're going to get them hands on,
you know, we'll tell them whyand show them why we do what we do
(03:58):
around.
Like I said, you know, to me,at a festival like that, if you're
not out front with a, with abig party grill and based in the
ribs so they can smell it, seeit, you know, and then passing those
ribs over to get cut for thosepeople, you're missing out on an
opportunity because that drawspeople in at those events, you know,
(04:21):
and then the little thingsthat we've learned over the years
about, about this, we want tobe able to give to them.
So, yeah, it's, it's, it's agood way to get our.
Get volunteers and get people engaged.
But it's also a way thatpeople that may have interest in
vending and getting moreinvolved in barbecue of how to do
that can learn.
I think there's two importantthings you need to include in this.
(04:45):
They need to bring two books,their checkbook and their prayer
book.
Because if you get the numberswrong, you know what that means?
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
And we're going off ofexperience because we've done this.
Now, the vending side of it,like, I think three out of five years,
this will be the third one.
(05:06):
And we know what our numbershave been in the past and we know
what other vendors did like.
And we also.
Last year they got caught off guard.
Last year was one of the yearsthat I didn't vend and they got caught
off guard because Ala na gaveall their high rollers like a 50
seed, you know, because theydo it all off of a little wristband,
(05:27):
you know, where you tap andpay well.
They gave all of those highrollers, I'll call them a dollar
fifty, you know, like credit.
Right, right.
And then, you know, they hooktheir credit card up to it.
I mean, they flew throughmoney because the way you can just
go around tapping stuff andtapping for beer, tapping for food,
tapping for this.
(05:47):
But what they weren'tanticipating is they didn't know
about that 50 bump.
And that was about 200 andsomething people that got that.
And vendors were flying.
I mean, food was flying off.
I, I was sitting there behindthe scenes with our class last year
grilling extra tri tips forone of the groups because they were
(06:11):
so far behind that they neededproteins, you know, and they were
bringing them over and we'regrilling them and having the students
help with it, you know, to, tokeep up with the demand.
Right.
So, I mean, it, it's always alogistical nightmare.
You know, I, I'm actually, youknow, right now I'm using their equipment
(06:33):
and they don't have a lot ofbig equipment.
So I'm going to be pre cookingsome stuff, you know.
And you know, the nice thingabout combi ovens is, man, you can't
tell the difference when youreheat something in the combi versus,
you know, other other ways.
But, you know, I'm still thekind of guy that would like to be
pulling off ribs fresh, youknow, throwing them on that grill
(06:54):
and doing that.
So I'm working to try to findNoel Hickory up in that area that
we can get up in there to bein our spot.
We're, you know, we're.
Excuse Me, there's a sayingaround here.
It's been here for years.
Keep Portland weird.
And there's merit to that on alot of different issues and levels.
(07:15):
But we're not huge, hugebarbecue country like Kansas City.
Oh, I know.
Yeah.
And so sometimes it's hard.
I mean there's some vendorsthat sell, sell those types of cookers,
but they're not always readilyavailable up here.
I mean if you, if you wanted aWeber kettle or even a Traeger, you're
(07:37):
in the home turf right here.
You know what I mean?
So yeah, it's tough on that.
The, and they've moved it upthis year, haven't they?
Date wise from previous.
So they, it's, it's reallymoving it back to where you it was
in the earlier years.
Okay.
Last year they, they were,they were way, you know, they moved
back over a month, about sixweeks further back.
(07:59):
And, and it's, you know, justthings that are going on.
They've had a lot of, gonethrough a lot of management change
at a, from the casino side andlooking at it and, and you, you'll
notice this year's BarbecueFest does not have the slew of celebrity
(08:23):
chefs that it has in the past.
You know, it's got, it's gotsome influencers and it has some,
you know, people that, thathave, you know, big networks and
stuff.
But it doesn't, it's not the,you know, you're not going to see
Michael Simon or.
Well, at least I've been toldyou're not going to see Michael Simon
or, or Jet Tila or theseothers that they've been bringing
(08:43):
in over the last few years asthey gotten this has gotten larger
and larger.
I mean they, they're expectingover 5,000 people between Saturday
and Sunday and they're,they're four hour slots.
So you buy, you know, you buyyour ticket for a four hour slot
to come there and it'll beSunday, you know, Saturday afternoon.
(09:03):
Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon.
So.
Well, it's a, it's a big event.
I mean it's turned into a bigevent like that.
They're still doing thebarbecue contest, you know, and,
and they've expanded that to,to, for bigger space to bring in
more teams and, and they wantto grow that more as well.
(09:27):
Yeah, well, they've got themoney to do it.
Why did they cut the celebrity chefs?
They did, they didn't, theydidn't see the, the need for at least
the full number of them anddidn't see a, you know, the, the
the reciprocal increase in, inattendance for having those big names.
(09:51):
And, and so they're like, hey,why are we spending money to bring
these people, big money tobring these people in when we're
not seeing like a huge spikein the numbers?
Because we have these people.
And, and so they've beenplaying with them with different
festivals and not having asmany of the big names and numbers
haven't gone down.
People for the food, for the experience.
(10:12):
And not necessarily, you know,because somebody like Michael Simon
or Aaron Mayer is getting upon stage and doing a demo.
Yeah, yeah, and I canunderstand that.
I mean, it's, it's, it's greatto have them.
They're a wealth ofinformation and personality and all
that.
(10:33):
But again, that kind of keepPortland weird crowd even though
it's across the river inVancouver, if you will.
But you know what I mean, it'sjust those things have never been
huge, huge draws.
Yeah.
And you know, those guysaren't cheap.
I mean, and gals, you know,you know, and, and for me it was
great because I, I, I've metmany of them.
(10:55):
We've had a chance of, of, youknow, building relationships with
many of them so I get to seethem at these events.
But for me, that's not why I'm there.
You know, I'm there because Iget a chance to work with, you know,
first responders and veteransand, you know, and the business of
barbecue class.
We're still focused on, youknow, trying to get the veterans
(11:17):
and first responders aroundthe area that are interested to come
out, but we're opening it up alittle bit, you know, because we're
also trying to build our baseof volunteers.
We're going to take a break.
We're going to be back withStan Hayes, Leanne and myself right
here on the Nation right after this.
Stay with us.
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(11:59):
Hey everybody, it's Jeff here.
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(12:29):
This is an encore.
Welcome back to the Nation.
I'm J.T.
along with Ms. Whippen.
She's busy, this boy.
She's just trying to get heron the phone someday, I'll tell you
that.
It's tough out there.
If you want to follow theshow, we're on all the social media
platforms and all the podcastplatforms and excuse me, Leanne has
(12:50):
her Instagram, which she's gotabout 9 million people that follow
her on that.
I've got mine, which I havethree, and of course Facebook and
Twitter and all that.
So we're pretty easy to find.
Like I said, we've got StanHayes with us.
Stan's been on the show anumber of times from Operation Barbecue
Relief, the Carolinas, thestorms they had there, all through
(13:14):
that swath of the south.
And I followed it.
You know, I watched your postsand stuff, how you were, you were
responding to things.
This isn't so much about theinstantaneous response, but are you
still in some of those areason occasion helping or what's going
on back there?
Yeah, so especially in westernNorth Carolina, we have, you know,
(13:36):
we were there for over a month.
We left, but we've been backsubsequently probably five or six
different times to dodifferent things in different communities.
Most recently over Easter, we,we did meals for four different communities,
sort of centralized it in oneof those communities and then sent
it out to three additionalcommunities to do a few thousand
(13:58):
meals, you know, to get out tothose people.
Because it's amazing that, youknow, it's a double edged sword really
for, you know, many of themlive there because they want to be
left alone.
Right, right.
You know, they, they, theydon't want government interaction.
They don't want, you know,sometimes people interaction.
But when something like thishappens, you know, we have to do
(14:20):
better.
You know, I mean, you stillhave people living in tents, they
live through the winter, intense.
I mean, how, how can that be,you know, with, with everything that
we have today?
And, and so we, we did it.
You know, when you saw theresponse to the LA fires was greater
than what happened in westernNorth Carolina, you know, it just,
(14:42):
that's politics at work.
Right.
And, and I'm not a politicalperson, I don't like to play games
like that, but I think it wasjust glaringly obvious what was happening.
And, and we were in la.
I mean, don't get me wrong, wewent out there because there was
a huge need and we were, youknow, we were asked to come out and,
but it doesn't Compare in my, in.
(15:03):
In my eyes of, you know, whenyou look at what happened out there
and, and we'll continuethrough this year, you know, probably
every other month, almostevery third month, we've got something
planned to go back in thereand do thousands of meals, you know,
with different groups and, andteaming up with groups to.
To continue to help up.
Because it's going to beprobably two years before many of
(15:24):
these people, their home, if,if they have ever built.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, you're.
You're way south from where Iam and, and from Stan there.
Are they on the local news?
Are they covering the peoplein Carolinas or.
(15:47):
Occasionally, but, you know,occasionally they're covering la.
Occasionally they're covering us.
And I mean, my daughter'shouse just got imploded two days
ago and the storm was quite awhile ago.
So, I mean, it's gonna be ayear before she even gets another
house.
So it's.
(16:09):
It's touch and go with the news.
It's, as you said, it's kindof political.
I have family in NorthCarolina, and I know how devastating
it was, and I feel that theygot slighted.
Well, for what they went through.
Even me sitting 3,000 milesaway, I thought they've always, they've
kind of turned their back onthem or just, you know, they came
in for the.
(16:30):
I promise not to get toopolitical here, folks, but the powers
that be at the time came infor the photo ops and yeah, we'll
do this.
But it took a while to evenget them there and they did that
and then they left and then itjust kind of sat.
I think the most importantthing about the Carolinas is those
people didn't have insurancebecause they didn't expect this to
(16:51):
happen to them.
Whereas in Florida, you know,they have insurance or they should.
You know what I mean?
So when they lose something inthe Carolinas, it's not coming back
to them.
They lost it.
And I feel like that focus hasbeen lost.
You have a lot of generationalhomes that were paid off, you know,
handed down from family tofamily in some of those hollers and
(17:15):
some of those areas aroundthere that, you know, they didn't
see a need to have insurancebecause, you know, most people think
of insurance for that, youknow, tragedy.
Right.
And it, and sometimes itbecomes, you know, that cost benefit.
Is it.
Is there a benefit to havingit or not?
Unfortunately.
Right, right.
(17:36):
And when, when things are paidoff, you don't have a mortgage company
that tells you you have tohave it.
You know, Right.
So.
But again, it is.
There's a lot going on now,and there's a lot more people involved
and, and other groups thatwe've worked with, that we've gone
back and worked with, youknow, are helping in those efforts
(17:58):
to get people, you know, alittle bit more situated.
You know, we worked with agroup that I think in one weekend
brought in a.
They brought in a group ofAmish from Pennsylvania, Ohio area.
I saw that.
Yeah.
And they built 20 tiny homesin a weekend.
(18:19):
It's amazing.
And, and I'm like, look, thisis what humanity is about right here.
You know, it wasn't thegovernment, it wasn't the state.
You know, it was non profitorganizations, church groups, civic
groups coming together to say,you know what, we're gonna have to
take this in our own hands.
Right, Right.
(18:40):
No, I, I saw those news clipson that, Stan.
And you know, those Amishfolks, they got, they can build stuff.
You know, we all know thatthey can build stuff, and they could
do it.
You know, they raise a barn inan afternoon, a huge barn, you know,
and they got the roof andsiding on by the end of the day.
Maybe the interior isn'tfinished, but, you know, you.
(19:03):
It's, it's up.
It's tangible at that point.
And I saw those clips aboutthe Amish coming into North Carolina
and building those littlehomes and stuff, and they were just
knocking it out.
You know, I thought that was impressive.
We're going to have to take abreak here in a minute, but what
I want to talk to you about isI think you came on the show the
(19:26):
first time, what, six yearsago or something?
It's been a while.
It's been a while.
Yeah.
And you were really startingto hit your stride with OBR then,
you know, and if you don'tknow what that stands for, it's Operation
Barbecue Relief.
All right, but when we comeback, I want to talk to you about
the expansion.
And now you have what I wantto say.
(19:48):
Satellite divisions.
I'm going to let you explainit better than that around the country
where you can, you know, yourresponse can be as soon as they open
the gate, we can be there type thing.
All right, we're going to takea break.
We're going to be back withStan Hayes, Leanne and myself on
the Nation in just a second.
Got to listen to thecommercials, though.
But we'll be right back.
(20:19):
Hey, everybody, it's jt And Ihave eaten, if you've ever looked
at me, you know that.
But I have eaten.
Seafood all over the world.
And I can tell you there's noplace better than here in Oregon
and our Dungeness crab.
If you want to learn moreabout Oregon Dungeness crab, just
go to oregondungeness.org findout how to cook it, how to catch
it, where to buy it, and thesustainability of what they're doing
(20:42):
there in the Oregon Crab Commission.
Check it out.
This is an encore.
Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm Jason.
One of the things we mentionevery week on this show has to do
(21:03):
with this blonde lady with astick growing out of the back of
her head right now.
If you can see her back picture.
Yeah, I was in a steak kind of mood.
Yeah, it's a beautiful looking steak.
Pig powder.
Love pig powder.
She's going to give us anupdate on that because it's a great
product.
You can go to pigpowder.comand order it.
(21:24):
And Leanne's the only one onthe show I ever let do this, so.
Yeah, and I appreciate that greatly.
It is available on Amazon as well.
And it is a rev, an awardwinning rub.
And you hear award winning alot with food and anything.
But it did win best rub on theplanet, which is a very big award.
It can be used on pork andchicken and french fries and baked
(21:47):
beans.
It's very versatile.
Jeff, you've used it a lot.
Yes.
And then we also have a spicypig powder coming out and that will
be on the site as soon as Ireceive it.
And some labeling changes, too.
I'm even going to use itFriday on a, on a live show.
Oh, good.
I'll tell you what I'm doing then.
We'll get back to Stan here.
(22:08):
I'm doing a, a grilled chickenthigh with basil and then some mango
peach salsa on rice.
And yeah, it's one of those things.
I went, I went to the fridgeand I went, I didn't plan anything
for dinner.
And so I yelled in the frontroom, Shell just got home.
(22:28):
I said, hey, how about somechicken and rice?
And she goes, sure.
Well, we had not to belaborthis, but we'd gone to Costco and
got one of those big peachmango salsa containers I don't know
if they have in your area, butthey have them up here.
So I did that and I got tothinking about it and I thought,
I can do that.
And so I used a little pigpowder on it.
Yeah, pig powder wouldcomplement peaches, mango, anything
(22:49):
like that.
Yeah, it's perfect.
So go to Amazon or go tobigpowder.com I'll show you.
I'll send you a picture of thehero shot when we're done.
See it.
I want to see it.
Anyway, we're talking withStan Hayes today from Operation Barbecue
Relief.
And as we said going into thebreak, when Stan first came on the
show they were just reallygaining traction and he'd been, he's
(23:13):
put a lot of years in on this.
So but now they not only havethat, they have their retreat farm
if you will, where they cantail with veterans and, and as you
know, you hear me rail aboutit a lot that we need to do more
for our veterans and Stan hasfollowed those leads.
(23:33):
So bring us up to speed fromwhere you started stan, to where
OBR is now.
Well, you know, this is our14th year actually tomorrow I believe.
So we're right on, on that,you know, already talking about 15
years what we're going to dofor a little celebration.
(23:55):
But as you look back at wherewe've come, you know, from, from
the days of a volunteer group,you know, caravanning around the
country to, to major disastersand feeding communities to, you know,
last year we did 24 differentdisaster events across the country.
Just shy of 1.6 million mealsprovided to those communities after
(24:17):
disaster strikes and firstresponders and groups that come to
help them.
But we did 100 non disasterevents last year across the country
to support our veterans, ourfirst responders, communities in
need outside of disaster insome way, fashion or form.
I mean one example is, and wejust finished, it was at the beginning
(24:39):
of May is InternationalFirefighters Day.
And on that day three yearsago we started a small little movement
of hey, let's go out and feedthe firemen at firehouses on that
day.
And we did it in Vancouverthree years ago was one of the first
areas I just happened to beout there around that time and was
(25:02):
able to go help feed and waspart of this event.
Well now as you move forwardthis year we did over 180 different
firehouses and 30 differentcities and 21 different states.
Wow.
So in three years thatmovement is just jumping up and you've
got, we've got companies andgroups coming on board.
(25:23):
Leanne down in your area,Sonny's Barbecue jumped in and the
Southeast and said we want tobe part of this.
We love this idea ofcelebrating our heroes, you know,
on a day like this.
And, and for us, you know,this is how we keep our, you know,
our volunteers that we spend alot of time, effort, they're the
backbone of what we do.
(25:44):
This is how we keep themengaged by getting to do things in
their own community that, youknow, for their friends, their neighbors
and, and such.
And, and so it's, it's justbeen a great thing for growth wise.
It's been a great thing for engagement.
But more importantly, it givesa lot of ownership to those individuals
to help with the brand intheir community.
(26:07):
Sure.
How you've got a lot of peoplethat are members, if you will, of
obr.
How has that grown over the years?
I mean, you just gave theexample of Sunny's Barbecue helping
you with the first responders.
Sure.
But.
And I was thinking while youwere talking, I think it's probably
closer to eight years ago.
You were on the show.
First time this show's been.
(26:29):
Wow, we've been on the air.
We're going into the 11thyear, so it's been a while.
Anyway, I know like Meatheadis a supporter, we do stuff here,
so on and so forth.
But how has that grown?
You know, by adding that thefirst responders and veteran component
(26:52):
and even active military, it'sgrowing us into new verticals out
there because there's morecompanies that want to support those
than there are just thosesupporting disaster relief.
And then there's more foundations.
I mean we, we've just, youknow, started working with and, and
(27:13):
been been in the, in the worksfor quite some time.
But the Bob Woodrufffoundation is one of the biggest
ones out there that focuses onfirst responders, you know, veteran
groups and.
And such like that for.
And, and they've become sortof what a gatekeeper, I guess might
be the best way to put it forso many foundations that if you aren't
(27:35):
sort of an approvedorganization with the Woodruff foundation,
you aren't going to beeligible for a foundational grant.
That's like, it's like a weedout question.
If you're not a part of the.
They call it got your sixmember, then you, you don't even
(27:56):
qualify.
It's just like, yep, that'sjust a weed out.
You're done.
Yeah.
And you know, it's taken us awhile to, to get to there and understand
it and, and be able to getthrough that.
But that's just a new thingfor us.
That's a new avenue, it's anew relationship.
But that relationship is theywant to support these groups that
make it to that point.
And you know, I was with agentleman yesterday who's a brand
(28:18):
new member as well and he'salready seeing benefits from it.
He trains therapy dogs forveterans for PTSD and anxiety and
stuff like that.
And he has a tremendous facility.
(28:39):
They're growing leaps andbounds and they're a couple months
ahead of us in becoming a member.
But we just happened to betalking about it yesterday, how it's
already, that relationship'spaying off and each one of them is
like that.
Right.
I mean, the number ofcompanies, it's amazing.
You know, after 14 years, we,we have some of the, you know, same
(29:02):
people that we had in thatfirst year, second year, as we started
growing.
Yeah.
And still right beside us,still promoting, you know, how we
do good in the community and,and have deepened their relationship
with us.
How do you feel at the end ofthe day?
It's kind of an abstract question.
Exhausted.
(29:22):
Exhausted.
Exhausted.
You know, I'm down here at thecamp right now.
We just did a, we did.
Our Monday was our annual golf fundraiser.
Huge success until about, youknow, about 4 o' clock in the afternoon
when a, you know, massivestorm came in.
So, you know, only about athird of the field actually finished
(29:42):
18 holes.
But there wasn't anybody complaining.
I mean, it was.
Yeah, when you have a golftournament, you have seven different
chefs on holes around the golfcart course putting out fresh, you
know, you know, handheld itemsfor the golfers.
And, and if there's not food,there's booze.
You know, everybody had agreat time.
(30:02):
And then we took and, and wedecided, hey, let's get some of these
people that are coming in fromout of town.
Let's get them down to the camp.
So we did a VIP one day campexperience yesterday.
It had a small number of themstayed overnight because of their
travel and left this morning.
But it gave us a chance toshowcase the property.
(30:23):
But they all got to, you know,with Johnny, I, my, you know, chef
get to sit down and they gotto break down a, you know, whole
chicken to do a half chicken.
They all got to, you know,hear about it, watch them do it,
then go do it themselves.
And that really, you know, andthen get into the fun part of.
(30:45):
All right, how am I going toseason this?
What am I going to use?
Right.
Pig powder.
Pig powder, yeah.
Right.
You know, I'm, you know, we'regoing to hit up Leanne after this
to get something down herebecause we do, we have a little bit
of, we have like a, a littlepantry there of different spices.
So, and, and that's part ofthe culinary therapy when you think
about it.
That's the creative side ofthe brain that if you are painting
(31:05):
and you're trying to decidewhat color you want to paint something
or what you want to put inthere, what kind of flower you're
going to do or whatever it is.
Well, it's the same thing.
How do I want to, how do Iwant to season this?
Do I want to season?
Do I want sweet?
Do I want savory?
Do I want, you know, do I want heat?
And, you know, those are, youknow, it's engaging the same, same
part of the brain that youwould if you were doing art therapy
(31:29):
or music therapy.
It's just food, you know, andthe biggest distinction between all
of them is everybody has to eat.
So at the end of the day, youknow, it's not just the culinary
therapy is not justtherapeutic for them.
It's life skills, you know, ona grill and smoker for people.
And, you know, we had peoplethat were, you know, gung ho, people
(31:50):
that were really ginger asthey're trying to get through, you
know, cutting the backbone outof a chicken for the first time ever
or something.
But everybody had a blast.
And then they, at the end,they're sharing their chicken, you
know, saying, hey, you shouldtry my chicken.
Here, let me try some of yours.
And it's that, you know,food's the greatest unifier in the
world.
Right?
We're going to take a break.
(32:11):
We're going to come back withStan Hayes, Operation Barbecue Relief
and Ms. Whippen hall of Famer.
And me, I'm just a mic jockey.
We'll be right back.
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Hey, everybody, it's jt.
You know, I talk about PaintedHills all the time and we always
say beef the way nature intended.
(32:52):
But it's more than thatbecause each bite of Painted Hills
will make your taste buds explode.
Put a big bright smile on yourface and whoever's at your dinner
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And you can thank me for thatlater, too.
Just go topaintedhillsbeef.com and find out
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You won't regret it.
Hey, everybody, J.T.
Here.
I want to tell you aboutHammerstahl knives.
(33:14):
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(33:38):
This is an encore.
Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT along with LeanneWhippen and Stan Hayes.
I was Leanne.
I flashed on something here.
This is what, your third yearsitting in that chair?
Yeah.
I'm pretty sure Stan has readthe label of pig powder, though,
not to belabor the point, butwhen he was talking about savory
(33:59):
and sweet with a little heat,I mean, I was like, I'm thinking
that that's right on your label.
I'm gonna send Stan some so hecan have it at his camp and put it
in his pantry.
I want to come down.
I want to come down theresometime, Stan, if you're available,
and we can hook up, and I wantto see that camp.
And because I like to do allthose activities.
(34:21):
Hunting, fishing, you know,golfing, those.
That's kind of in mywheelhouse now.
What do you have on the agendagoing forward?
I know we talked about theevent coming up at Ala NA in June
and that, but what other kindof static events do you have on the
agenda for, say, the next four months?
So we have so many eventsthat, you know, one.
(34:45):
I start cutting them offabout, you know, about August.
They have to be local, standalone.
That doesn't take any.
You know, is being done by alocal person with their own equipment.
Because once we start gettinginto the height of hurricane season,
I'm not going to tie upequipment for that, But I would bet
(35:05):
you we have.
Between now and then, we'vegot over 20 events already on the
calendar.
I mean, I'm.
I'm doing.
In one week, I'm doing threedifferent events.
Coming up at the beginning ofJune, I'm doing the.
The National High SchoolBarbecue Championship.
We're going to do a meal forall the kids and their families coming
(35:27):
up to Kansas City, becauseit's being hosted up here in Kansas
City.
So, you know, I offered.
Since it's our hometown, wemight as well show them a little
hospitality because there's alot of kids from Texas, Oklahoma.
There's a team from Florida, Ibelieve, coming up this year for
it.
And as it continues to grow,that's the future of my volunteer
(35:48):
base, is those kids.
So I want them to know who we are.
I want them to know what we doand be able to talk to them about
how it can impact what they'redoing today, can impact people in
the future.
And so that's an opportunity,you know, and then that same week,
I'm doing a thing withNational Beef.
(36:08):
You know, we're just gettingmore and more, you know, involved
with events.
And in all of those, I thinkwe've got a couple of, you know,
we've done already this yearseveral reserve units where they're.
They've been called up and areleaving the country for deployment.
(36:30):
And we're fortunate enough tobe able to give them a little celebration
with their families beforethey leave.
At the same time, you know,every time we do that, we offer to
do the homecoming, you know,and so we have some that are now
coming full circle this summerto do some homecoming barbecue for
those reserve units that havebeen called up and been away from
(36:53):
home for, you know, some, someof the.
Man, some of these are longdeployments now, 15 months away from
home.
Yeah, and.
And those are, those are thefun things, right?
Because disasters aren't fun.
Disasters are, you know, thatnecessary evil out there where, you
know, you have to, you needsomebody out there providing a good
(37:13):
hot meal to people on theirworst day.
Where do you keep all your equipment?
Is it scattered about?
So we have.
Yes and no.
I mean, so we have ourwarehouse there in Tampa, you've
been to before, and we've gota small amount of equipment down
there.
We've got equipment in.
(37:36):
Our biggest warehouse spacenow is no longer Kansas City.
It's actually East Tennessee.
And that's partially becausethe people I have there that work
on the program side,operational side, but I can get so
much more per square foot inJohnson City, Tennessee than I can
(37:56):
anywhere around the KansasCity metro area.
Anywhere around.
I mean, I don't think inFlorida I can touch it.
You know, the space that we have.
And then Dallas, you know, theDallas area is, is the fourth location
which we've moved stuff and,and most recently we, you know, we've
consolidated some of our otherlocations, freezer storage space
(38:19):
and everything.
You know, we warehouse around400,000 servings of protein at any
given time to, to ensure thatwhen we, when a disaster strikes,
we have the protein on hand tobe able to serve those communities.
So.
And there's no place that wecan have that just in one place,
(38:41):
you know, so we, we do havemultiple locations there between
Kansas City and Dallas right now.
But we're adding our ownfreezer storage in East Tennessee.
There'll be about, you know,about a.
Enough for a tractor trailerload to start out with.
We've got a couple of minutesleft here.
Stan, do you, do you, as youknow, hurricane season is coming,
(39:05):
do you ramp up your, yourprotein storage in cold storage and
that, I mean, do you, youknow, it's kind of like projecting
the futures market.
Yeah, it's like vending.
Yeah.
So, so what we do is, youknow, we ensure that we're over that,
(39:27):
you know, 400, 000 mark tostart with in, in there.
But we're in contact with the,those companies that support us,
you know, and, and they can'tgive it to, for, for free every time.
Right, right.
But they give a good portionof it.
We try to get that, the freeand get that into storage as, you
know, when storage opens up orwhen, you know, before this ever
(39:49):
happens.
But it, you know, it's easierto buy even if it's at a highly reduced
cost and get a whole truckloadbrought in to backfill.
Right.
Fairly quickly.
And so now when you, you know,we did between Hurricane Helene and
Hurricane Milton, it was likejust under 1.4 million meals.
(40:12):
You know, the majority ofthose in Florida, across the state,
you, you think about that andyou try to work the math backwards
and I'm not, I'm not near.
I don't have enough toes andfingers to, to figure that all out.
Yeah, but we, we, you know,when you look at that, we're buying
a tremendous amount and, and,and we keep, we don't keep quite
(40:32):
that many, you know, sides.
Obviously we don't have number10 cans to match 400000 servings
because we can get that alittle easier.
But we have, you know, we havemore than a tractor trailer load
that's going to be rolling andof number 10 cans.
But you know, we startedadding more to our arsenal so we
can do more diversified typemeals when we get in there.
(40:54):
Things that can be puttogether so much faster than barbecue.
Right.
Stan Hayes from OBR OperationBarbecue Relief.
Stan, where can direct peopleto where they can find you on your
websites and social media, et cetera.
Yeah.
So website is obr.org justnice sweet, short.
(41:15):
And you can donate, you canvolunteer right from the homepage.
There's two different buttons there.
And then all of our socialmedia is all OPBBQ Relief.
Stan, thank you so much as always.
You're a wealth of information.
I really admire what you doout there, bud.
It's terrific.
Again, thank you guys forhaving me on.
(41:37):
No problem.
We'll be back next week.
Don't know where Leanne'sgonna be.
I don't know where I'm gonna be.
But we'll be and go up to theALNA in June and see Stan.
And if you live in thePortland area or Seattle, come on
down and we'll do then.
Until then, I'm jt.
Thanks for listening, thanksfor watching.
And go out, have somebarbecue, have some fun, and remember
(42:00):
our motto, turn it, don't burn it.
Take care, everybody.
Barbecue Nation is produced byJTSD LLC Productions in association
with Salem Media Group.
All rights Dessert.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.