July 26, 2023 • 26 mins
Chef to the Shelters
Founded by Michael McCoy in 2021, Chef to the Shelters provides meals which speak of dignity and respect to sober transition homes and sober living homes to men and women in early sobriety who have taken their first steps in recovery to regain their lives. Follow Mike's journey from top of the world of business to the depts of alcoholism to recovery and serving so many in need.
Founded by Michael McCoy in 2021, Chef to the Shelters provides meals which speak of dignity and respect to sober transition homes and sober living homes to men and women in early sobriety who have taken their first steps in recovery to regain their lives. Follow Mike's journey from top of the world of business to the depts of alcoholism to recovery and serving so many in need.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Welcome back to Advocacy and Motion.I'm Tommy Fan, your host, and
you may know that every week wegive a vision and a voice to nonprofit
organizations and individuals making a contribution toour society. And I want to start
off by thanking our presenting sponsor,Niagara Conservation. You may know that Niagara
has been working with affordable housing unitsto provide cost saving and money saving plumbing
(00:32):
products. But now the good newsis those products are now available to homeowners.
Everyone can enjoy these savings. AndI want to introduce my partner,
Trisha Glwaukee, and she is thepublisher of Youth Sports Today to tell you
about all the good news now atNiagara. Thanks Tommy, and thanks Niagara
for your continuing support of nonprofit organizations. If you want to get the ultimate
(00:55):
experience in cleaning us and comfort withoutbreaking the bank, and transform your bathroom,
Niagara from toilets to today's Niagara hasthe perfect solution for any bathroom project.
Niagara's award winning products not only outperformedcompetitors, but they also outdesigned them.
Thanks to innovations like stealth technology,Niagara's products can use half as much
(01:15):
water as the competitors providing you withthe solution that will help the environment and
save you money. Shop now onAmazon or home deepot dot com. My
guest today is Mike McCoy. Heis the founder of chefs Chef for the
Shelters, Chef to the Shelter,Chef to the Shelters. I get that
right, All right, Welcome Mike. I'm glad you could join us.
(01:37):
First of all, tell us alittle bit about a Chef to the shelters.
What is that about? One?Thank you for having me, and
thank you for what you do forthe community, the nonprofit community. You
know, there was a time thatI was as far from the nonprofit community
as could be. But I thinkwe'll probably talk a little bit about that.
Chefton the Shelters actually started. Itcame out of the end of COVID
(02:01):
of twenty twenty. I had startedcooking for Sober Shelters as a way to
give back. And before twenty twenty, I really didn't cook. I mean
I could cook a little bit,I could hold my own, but nothing
like I do today. And soduring COVID, I got the Culinary and
Student of America's textbook, taught myselfto cook, and I started giving back
(02:23):
by cooking for one shelter and thatturn to two, turn to four,
turn to eight. My church atthe time they got our nonprofit status for
us, and so today we cookfor thirty four sober shelters for men,
women, and adolescents in early sobriety, and we do that once a month.
(02:45):
It's one thousand, two hundred andfifty five men, women and kits.
And we do that for free,and we make them lights out food.
And when I say lights out inour mission statement, we talk about
dignity meals that speak of dignity andrespect. And so that's kind of what
chef to the shelters is. You'resaying sober shelters, Yes, describe that.
(03:05):
What tell us about that? Whatdoes that mean? So a sober
shelter is when I talk about mysobriety, I'm a little over five years
sober. Now. Um it's sofor a little over five years, I
have taken no substances, whether theybe chemical or alcohol, to enhance my
mind or mood in any way.And so when someone's sober, it's it's
(03:32):
the absence of chemicals or alcohol tochange their mood or So that's that,
Okay, and but these are thesespecial shelters, special facilities. Are they
different from homeless shelters? They are? Thanks for asking that, Um,
it's special because these are men andwomen and adolescents just like me who have
(03:53):
burnt their world down and they don'thave another place to go. Probably we
don't have the funds for to goto treatment treatments very expensive in the United
States and I'm guessing around the world. But if they don't have that money,
these serves such a vital role.And there's you know, they go
by different names. There's a socialdetox, there's social transition shelter, then
(04:15):
there's just a sober shelter, andthen there's sober living homes and that's where
people go after they're in these shelters. So they come into these sober shelters
and they're the most beautiful people onthe planet because they surrender when they go
in. They just go, youknow what, my way is not working
and I need someone to guide me. And there's people in those facilities that
(04:38):
will take them from just like Iwas taken from day one of I had
to learn how to live a lifewithout drugs and alcohol, and that's what
they're doing. And there's you know, there's stipulations for them being in these
shelters. So there's jurine analysis oras I call it, ua testing.
There's a requirement for a number ofmeetings that they go to each day each
week. There's service commitments. That'skind of where Chef to the Shelters came
(05:00):
from it. You know, Iwas trying to give back in a way
for a service commitment. I didnot anticipate it was going to turn into
a career. But so that's whata sober shelter is. Well, I
know you have a great story toshare with us, and you know what
you're talking about. You were homelessat one time. You went from being
a very highly successful businessman in sportsmarketing as well as some other industries to
(05:25):
homeless. Tell us about your journeyand how you went from there to where
you are now. So grew upin Dallas, went off to the University
of Arkansas to college, and outof college, I ended up with Hilton
Hotels. They have national sales officethat was here in Dallas, and landed
(05:45):
in that did some pretty pretty spectacularthings early on, and that got me
noticed. In nineteen ninety one,I won national Salesperson of the Year for
Hilton Direct on the outbound part ofour business. Ended up at the National
Sales meeting that year that was atthe Beverly Hilton and Beverly Hills on the
rooftop. I just found some picturesfrom that and I did I did not
(06:11):
remember that I have a picture withme and Bob Hope and MERV Griffin because
at the time it was the MERVGriffin Beverly Hilton. But anyway, that
that got me noticed and got anopportunity to move to Beverly Hills. I
lived in the Beverly Hilton for abouteleven months. At one point my next
door neighbor was Rodney Dangerfield, andthen came back to the National Sales Office
(06:33):
and then Hilton bought the Point Resort, so I went out as a transition
guy out in Phoenix, Arizona,came back to the National Sales Office.
So now we're in the ninety threeninety four time period, and somebody came
up to me and told me thatthey had heard that they were going to
build a horse racing facility here inDallas as we know it now as Lone
(06:54):
Star Park. But it hadn't evencome out of the ground yet, and
I went and interviewed, and Ilanded with It's a Harlan Crow project at
the time, and I landed withthe team there and we brought that building
out of the ground and that wasabsolutely some of the just the most fun
I've ever had in a long timein her career. But I can see
(07:15):
looking back, I couldn't see itwhen I was in it, And that's
part of my alcoholic journey is Icouldn't see what a mess I was becoming
while I was in it. ButI was responsible for a lot of the
Sweet sales that took place there,along with some other responsibilities that fell under
my purview. And what I foundwas when we were live racing, I
(07:36):
would go and visit the Sweet ownerseach night, and I started having a
drink, either a beer or acocktail in sweets. I might have had,
you know, ten to twenty drinksa night while I was at work.
I still wasn't having any consequences,so I didn't see anything wrong with's
what I was doing. But that'sthe mind of an alcoholic. And pretty
(08:00):
soon I got a phone call fromDisney at the time out in Anaheim at
the time, they owned the AnaheimDucks and the Anaheim Angels, UM and
I interviewed with them. It wasmy friends from the Dallas Stars that recommended
me to Disney. And my jokewith them at the time was, you
guys just want me out of themarket because I'm taking too much market share
(08:22):
from you with our sales. UMand that's just a joke. UM.
So I went out to Disney.UM. I was director of sales for
the Ducks. UM. I hada little bit of responsibility with the Angels,
not a lot, but UM outthere. Uh My drinking was increasing,
but again I couldn't I saw nothingwrong with it. UM. And
(08:45):
pretty soon I got a phone callfrom uh, my friend with the Dallas
Stars, UM, who was areally really good friend, and he said,
mister Hicks. Tom Hicks was theowner of the Stars at the time,
said mister Hicks bought the Rangers.Um And and I said, it's
it's tough. It's tough when youhave both because if you think of a
Major League Baseball schedule and a NationalHockey League schedule, you've got forty one
(09:09):
hockey games, you've got eighty onebaseball games, You've got spring training preseason,
you've got postseason hopefully and Stanley Cuphopefully. You know that it's a
tremendous amount of work and you're ina budget cycle for two to three months
for each entity out of the year. Plus we had responsibilities in the nonprofit
world. You know, almost allof the vice presidents were involved with a
(09:31):
charity somehow, someway. You wantme to keep going. Yeah, you
crashed, Yes, let me getyou to the crash. Crashed after we
go back. That is a factI didn't. I talk about having two
tanks and two napalm guns. That'sabout how I went out. We went
(09:52):
from the Stars Rangers Ruddy an AmericanAirline Center, our CEO, Jimmy Light,
went to Arizona, took four ofus with him. Then he came
back and in oh four the lockoutcame in the NHL and I was with
just the coyotes there and when thewhen the lockout came, I was approached
(10:18):
by one of my suiteholders whose commercialreal estates, Stuart Title and Trust,
and he asked me to come onboard as his VP of Business Development.
And here's what I know looking back, it was a tremendous amount of money
it was a country club membership atArizona Country Club. It was an unlimited
expense account. And when I sayunlimited, I mean unlimited. I traveled
(10:39):
the world with my clients, tookhim to the Ryder Cup at you know,
in a k club, the OpenChampionship at Saint Andrew's, seven World
Series, four Super Bowls, twoKentucky Derbies. I could go on,
and um, I just don't thinkthat I was prepared at the time for
(11:01):
that. Plus, um, itjust accelerated my patient And an alcoholic,
it's a progressive disease, and Ijust kept adding to it, adding to
it, adding to it. Sobut I had gotten married by twenty By
twenty eleven, my drinking had gottento a point and I had had back
(11:28):
surgery and they introduced me to morphinein the hospital, and then they gave
me a pain doctor. And youdon't give an alcoholic like me a pain
doctor. Um. So I startedmanipulating the doctors, and by twenty twelve,
I'd burned down my marriage. SoI got a divorce in October of
twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, I wrote, I
(11:48):
wrote on my residuals from the commercialreal estate part of my life. And
for three years I laid on acouch and I had gotten up to three
hundred perkose that a month out ofall to get up amy and to go
to bed, frequent cocaine use anda bottle of Scotch day. It's amazing.
Um. By August of fifteen,I was I was ready to check
(12:13):
out. I was done. Ididn't think I had I was living in
so much I'll just call it hell. I was living in hell um self
imposed on my dad, UM,and I just wanted to go. I
didn't think I had anything to offeranyone in life, and so I attempted
suicide in August of fifteen. Itdidn't work, because I think I'm still
(12:33):
here today. But that kind oftakes up to the crash. Now,
let's come back up. Let's getto the good stuff. Man, it
is good and I'm certain I'll cry. I always do. Um. Twenty
sixteen, I happened to watch churchon TV for the first time. I
(12:54):
hadn't had any spirituality or contact with, you know, a church in thirty
plus years when I got out ofhigh school. That was at the end
of that well. I started watchingchurch on TV in twenty sixteen. In
twenty seventeen, I got invited byjust a wonderful, wonderful man and his
wife to attend church in person,and that was Highlands in North Scottsdale.
(13:20):
And the thing that really resonates withme, Tommy that first service, I
had not gone into a church inthirty plus years, and of course I
didn't know that that Paul wasn't elderin the church, and so they stood
on the eighth row. Let meassure you, my people, we stood
on the back row or close tothe back and I don't remember what the
(13:43):
sermon was that day, but Iwhen the worship band came back up on
stage, they played amazing Grace andI had thirty years of tears coming down
my face. And I looked atPaul and I asked him do they play
this every week? And he justhe has a patented Paul smile, Pek
(14:05):
smile, and he just shook hishead no. And I think somewhere inside
that day I knew I was home, but I wasn't done yet. For
the rest of seventeen I was attendingchurch in person, and I was drawing
closer to God. And in twentyeighteen, I decided to get baptized and
(14:28):
on Easter Sunday, which was Aprilfirst that year, and nothing out of
the ordinary happened that day I gotbaptized. But seven days later, on
April eighth, when I opened myeyes, just as much as I know
I'm sitting here looking at you,I knew in my head that it was
over. It was done. Thecraving and obsession I've been removed. And
(14:52):
there's only one answer for that,and that's God. All right, very
good. We got a lot moreor talk about. I want to find
out ways people can help get involvedwith you and what you're doing, but
I want to take them an interimention. One of our other sponsors, Pranahn
Brantahn, is at a great littlegift shop in downtown Richardson, and we
want to thank them for their supportof all the nonprofits that you see on
(15:16):
our show and what they do inthe community. And when you walk in
you'll find energy, wellness, andgifts for the soul. Now, we've
talked many times on the show aboutthe many gifts you can find there,
but wellness today is so important toeveryone, and you can take charge of
your health by committing to the practiceof relaxation and rejuvenation that the healing sessions
(15:37):
provide. Healing energy can improve stressand anxiety levels, reduce physical and emotional
pain, and improve the quality ofsleep. So contact Terry at Panhahn dot
com to book your healing session.That's Terry T. E. Rii at
Piranahn dot com. All right,we've got a little bit of spiritual health
(16:00):
there and here as well. Tellus a little bit more where you are
now and what you're doing and howpeople can get involved. That's great,
um, Chefs of the shelters.Again, it came out of a service
opportunity for me. I just wantedto, you know, to give back.
I'd gotten back into the commercial realestate business here and I was back
making money and a couple of otheropportunities came, so I started cooking for
(16:25):
Dallas twenty four hour Club. Thatwas the first time I'd ever cooked for,
you know, I don't know morethan ten people or whatever that might
be. I've always been a barbecueguy, like I can cook brisket and
I cook part about, but I'dnever done play to dinners at all,
and they gave me an opportunity.The day before thanks to giving me a
twenty nineteen to cook for two hundredof their residents that were there, two
(16:49):
hundred residents and neighborhood people. Andsomehow I pulled it off because I promise
you I'm not that talented. Andthat's where the journey started of I found,
you know, I really inside me. I loved cooking. And then
we got into COVID, I gotthe Culinary Institute of America's textbook. I
(17:10):
taught myself how to cook while Iwas still working with Capital Title, and
one shelter turned into two, turnedinto four, turned into eight, and
today, to get to your question, today we are up to thirty four
sober shelters. That's one two hundredand fifty five men, women and adolescents
in early sobriety that we get toserve once a month. We served the
(17:30):
meals that speak of dignity and respect. You know, part of my story
was I was after I got sober, I was homeless for ten months and
God did a hard reset on me. This guy that had a lot of
arrogance in his life needed to understandhow to give back. And that's when
he taught me in that ten months. So when I taught myself to cook.
(17:52):
I said, why don't I startcooking for these shelters. But I
don't want to just do you know, ham sandwiches and butter sandwiches. I
want to do meals that speak ofdignity, your respect. So how people
can help, We love volunteers.I had a group of teenagers in our
commercial kitchen last week and they createdtwelve hundred of one item. I taught
them the recipe beginning to end,and then I said the catches. You
(18:15):
have to make it for twelve hundred, and then we got to deliver them
to three of our thirty four sobershelters up. They can help through volunteering,
definitely. They can help through donations. Donations you can go to our
website Chef to the Shelters dot org. Here you can find that on Venmo
as well. You said your selftaught, but yet you've won numerous culinary
(18:38):
awards and people have seen our showbefore. No how big golf fans we
are. And I saw on yourresume that you won the white jacket from
the Augusta National Golf Club. Tellus about that, about your experience at
the Atagassa. That's a pretty highlevel chefs. It's still very surreal that
(18:59):
I even get to go there.And towards the end of twenty twenty,
I was contacted by somebody from mysports career that asked me if I would
consider cooking at Augusta. She hadbeen kind of following my story on my
Facebook and I told her that Iwould be I would consider taking the garbage
out at Augusta because I'm a biggolfer. I agree with you. We
(19:22):
were talking about it, I'm abig golfer to the site, and she
set me up with an interview withChef Roberto and he's the executive chef there,
and I explained to him on thephone when he said, you know,
once we got through the interview,I explained to him, I said,
you do realize I've never been ina commercial kitchen, and he just
assured me it'd be okay. AndI got in and I cut my teeth.
(19:45):
In the first two years was it? I get to learn so much
from the true professional chefs, andthey bring him in from all across the
country. It is such an unbelievableexperience. And this year when I arrived,
um my head chef on my floorchef Jesse. On the first day,
he pointed to the prep kitchen andhe said, this is your kitchen
(20:07):
this year. And then course inmy head, I'm like, I'll want
me to burn this thing down.Um, I do not feel that,
you know, I'm I'm qualified orwas qualified for something like that. And
then he said, uh, theseare going to be you know, there's
eight people that were going to bein that kitchen, like on a regular
basis, because people float in andout from from the lines prep kitchen,
(20:30):
other responsibilities. But I had eightpeople that first timers at Augusta and we're
in Berkman's place. We only cookfor the members of Augusta and their guests.
Um, it's not the pimento cheese, although those pimento cheeses are very
good. Tommy I will tell youthat. Um, it's just a different
level. And for me to bethere, um again was surreal to begin
(20:53):
with. But UM I looked atthe eight the eight other chefs or culinary
students that we're in that prep kitchenwith me. I looked at that as
an advantage. It's kind of likewhen Lumtar Park hired me. I asked,
why didn't you hire someone else thathas experience in horse racing and Steve
Sex's invest mentor in business I've everhad, Steve said, because you don't
(21:15):
have any bad ideas like you,you know. And anyway, so we're
going through the week. I'm acharts and graphs guy. If you look
in my house and my friend's laughbecause I have them all up on my
wall, probably why I won't everattract a woman to get married again.
But charts and graphs work in myhead, like if I can see the
(21:36):
numbers, I can figure out anykind of system and scale it. Maybe
that comes from opening, you know, for arenage or stadiums in the credit.
But so I had those running andwe got to Saturday, which was
third round at Augusta, and thatwas a very important day for me.
I'm very fortunate that that that date, April eighth, comes each year while
(22:02):
I'm at Augusta and it was thirdround Saturday. It was my fifth year
sobriety birthday. So a lot ofemotion inside and it really didn't come out
until I get back to the hotelthat night. We go in and about
you know, four thirty in themorning, and we didn't leave until seven
at night and I got back tothe hotel and I just, you know,
it's kind of like the tears forthirty years of you know, not
(22:23):
being connected with God. It's,you know, tears of five years of
sobriety, because if you drank anddrugged like I did, you'd understand the
grace that you could feel. AndI did so, all right, So
that's that. And I get upthe next morning at three and I'm in
the kitchen by four or four fifteen, whatever it was, and I'm at
(22:44):
one hundred and fifty miles an hour, and two of the Sioux chefs come
by me at about four forty fivein the morning and they said, we
need to see you down in thebullpen with Chef Jesse. And I've never
been to the bullpen where that youknow, head chef and the Sioux chefs
me. You know, it's apecking order, you know, a hierarchy
there. And I'm going down thestairs and I'm going farther back than five
(23:07):
years, and I'm trying to think, you know, what have I done
wrong? You know, I didn'tcome to work drunk. I did come
to work, you know, Ican't think of why I'm going to the
bullpen and when the door opened,I remember I just saw Chef Jesse's face
and it wasn't you know, itwasn't a bad face. And I was
just like, what's happening. Theyhave the ability to give out two white
(23:29):
jackets on final round Sunday each year, and he brought he pulled a white
jacket out and he handed it tome and he said, you've earned this
and I need you to put iton and get back up to the floor.
And the other part of that andthis is, you know, this
is God doing for me what Icouldn't do for myself. Sunday it was
(23:53):
also Easter Sunday this year, andif you remember in the story, I
got baptized on Easter Sunday and sevendays later woke up sober. And for
me to be around the professionals thatI get to be around and learn from
them the only answers God. We'vetalked about so many things in such a
(24:19):
great journey. And I mentioned mypartner Tricia, who's publisher of a youth
SPCE today and we published articles ofhope of ambition of young people can basically
you can do it. And whenyou and I first talked on the phone.
I saw that in you, andone of the reasons I want you
to join us here, it's becausethat's the message we want to put out.
(24:41):
And I thank you so much.We've talked about a lot of things.
Is there something that we've overlooked,something you would like to say that
I haven't asked you that you wouldlike to add. This is your time
to tell us what you want.I have friends here in Dallas because I
grew up here, but I burntmy world down in Arizona and I came
(25:02):
back. And it may sound harshto some of your viewers, but when
a friend says about me, whetherit's in front of me or you know,
not with me not there, whenthey say if mcqua can get sober,
anybody can, I think that isprobably one of the best compliments anybody
(25:25):
can give God, and give meby the way I drank. And I'll
tie that in with something you justsaid, like young people that you know
want some hope and want some Ican tell you this. If a guy
like me can get in the kitchenand teach himself the fundamentals of cooking,
(25:47):
anybody can. But following that,you have to be surrounded by professionals that
you can learn from. I thinkthat's great. We really appreciate your time
here and begin with us. AndI also again want to thank our sponsored
title sponsor, h Niagara Conservation.Good news is you can now buy their
money saving water saving products online,so go to uh Niagaracorp dot com check
(26:11):
that out, or even even goto home Depot dot com and see the
line of products there. And alsoour friends at Parana Haven UH for the
wellness in your life. UH goto contact Terry at Paranahn dot com and
book your healing session there. It'sjust a wonderful, wonderful experience. So
(26:32):
thank you Mike so much. Thankyou to our sponsors, and UH we'll
be here next week. Thank youyou bet
Welcome back to Advocacy and Motion.I'm Tommy Fan, your host, and
you may know that every week wegive a vision and a voice to nonprofit
organizations and individuals making a contribution toour society. And I want to start
off by thanking our presenting sponsor,Niagara Conservation. You may know that Niagara
has been working with affordable housing unitsto provide cost saving and money saving plumbing
(00:32):
products. But now the good newsis those products are now available to homeowners.
Everyone can enjoy these savings. AndI want to introduce my partner,
Trisha Glwaukee, and she is thepublisher of Youth Sports Today to tell you
about all the good news now atNiagara. Thanks Tommy, and thanks Niagara
for your continuing support of nonprofit organizations. If you want to get the ultimate
(00:55):
experience in cleaning us and comfort withoutbreaking the bank, and transform your bathroom,
Niagara from toilets to today's Niagara hasthe perfect solution for any bathroom project.
Niagara's award winning products not only outperformedcompetitors, but they also outdesigned them.
Thanks to innovations like stealth technology,Niagara's products can use half as much
(01:15):
water as the competitors providing you withthe solution that will help the environment and
save you money. Shop now onAmazon or home deepot dot com. My
guest today is Mike McCoy. Heis the founder of chefs Chef for the
Shelters, Chef to the Shelter,Chef to the Shelters. I get that
right, All right, Welcome Mike. I'm glad you could join us.
(01:37):
First of all, tell us alittle bit about a Chef to the shelters.
What is that about? One?Thank you for having me, and
thank you for what you do forthe community, the nonprofit community. You
know, there was a time thatI was as far from the nonprofit community
as could be. But I thinkwe'll probably talk a little bit about that.
Chefton the Shelters actually started. Itcame out of the end of COVID
(02:01):
of twenty twenty. I had startedcooking for Sober Shelters as a way to
give back. And before twenty twenty, I really didn't cook. I mean
I could cook a little bit,I could hold my own, but nothing
like I do today. And soduring COVID, I got the Culinary and
Student of America's textbook, taught myselfto cook, and I started giving back
(02:23):
by cooking for one shelter and thatturn to two, turn to four,
turn to eight. My church atthe time they got our nonprofit status for
us, and so today we cookfor thirty four sober shelters for men,
women, and adolescents in early sobriety, and we do that once a month.
(02:45):
It's one thousand, two hundred andfifty five men, women and kits.
And we do that for free,and we make them lights out food.
And when I say lights out inour mission statement, we talk about
dignity meals that speak of dignity andrespect. And so that's kind of what
chef to the shelters is. You'resaying sober shelters, Yes, describe that.
(03:05):
What tell us about that? Whatdoes that mean? So a sober
shelter is when I talk about mysobriety, I'm a little over five years
sober. Now. Um it's sofor a little over five years, I
have taken no substances, whether theybe chemical or alcohol, to enhance my
mind or mood in any way.And so when someone's sober, it's it's
(03:32):
the absence of chemicals or alcohol tochange their mood or So that's that,
Okay, and but these are thesespecial shelters, special facilities. Are they
different from homeless shelters? They are? Thanks for asking that, Um,
it's special because these are men andwomen and adolescents just like me who have
(03:53):
burnt their world down and they don'thave another place to go. Probably we
don't have the funds for to goto treatment treatments very expensive in the United
States and I'm guessing around the world. But if they don't have that money,
these serves such a vital role.And there's you know, they go
by different names. There's a socialdetox, there's social transition shelter, then
(04:15):
there's just a sober shelter, andthen there's sober living homes and that's where
people go after they're in these shelters. So they come into these sober shelters
and they're the most beautiful people onthe planet because they surrender when they go
in. They just go, youknow what, my way is not working
and I need someone to guide me. And there's people in those facilities that
(04:38):
will take them from just like Iwas taken from day one of I had
to learn how to live a lifewithout drugs and alcohol, and that's what
they're doing. And there's you know, there's stipulations for them being in these
shelters. So there's jurine analysis oras I call it, ua testing.
There's a requirement for a number ofmeetings that they go to each day each
week. There's service commitments. That'skind of where Chef to the Shelters came
(05:00):
from it. You know, Iwas trying to give back in a way
for a service commitment. I didnot anticipate it was going to turn into
a career. But so that's whata sober shelter is. Well, I
know you have a great story toshare with us, and you know what
you're talking about. You were homelessat one time. You went from being
a very highly successful businessman in sportsmarketing as well as some other industries to
(05:25):
homeless. Tell us about your journeyand how you went from there to where
you are now. So grew upin Dallas, went off to the University
of Arkansas to college, and outof college, I ended up with Hilton
Hotels. They have national sales officethat was here in Dallas, and landed
(05:45):
in that did some pretty pretty spectacularthings early on, and that got me
noticed. In nineteen ninety one,I won national Salesperson of the Year for
Hilton Direct on the outbound part ofour business. Ended up at the National
Sales meeting that year that was atthe Beverly Hilton and Beverly Hills on the
rooftop. I just found some picturesfrom that and I did I did not
(06:11):
remember that I have a picture withme and Bob Hope and MERV Griffin because
at the time it was the MERVGriffin Beverly Hilton. But anyway, that
that got me noticed and got anopportunity to move to Beverly Hills. I
lived in the Beverly Hilton for abouteleven months. At one point my next
door neighbor was Rodney Dangerfield, andthen came back to the National Sales Office
(06:33):
and then Hilton bought the Point Resort, so I went out as a transition
guy out in Phoenix, Arizona,came back to the National Sales Office.
So now we're in the ninety threeninety four time period, and somebody came
up to me and told me thatthey had heard that they were going to
build a horse racing facility here inDallas as we know it now as Lone
(06:54):
Star Park. But it hadn't evencome out of the ground yet, and
I went and interviewed, and Ilanded with It's a Harlan Crow project at
the time, and I landed withthe team there and we brought that building
out of the ground and that wasabsolutely some of the just the most fun
I've ever had in a long timein her career. But I can see
(07:15):
looking back, I couldn't see itwhen I was in it, And that's
part of my alcoholic journey is Icouldn't see what a mess I was becoming
while I was in it. ButI was responsible for a lot of the
Sweet sales that took place there,along with some other responsibilities that fell under
my purview. And what I foundwas when we were live racing, I
(07:36):
would go and visit the Sweet ownerseach night, and I started having a
drink, either a beer or acocktail in sweets. I might have had,
you know, ten to twenty drinksa night while I was at work.
I still wasn't having any consequences,so I didn't see anything wrong with's
what I was doing. But that'sthe mind of an alcoholic. And pretty
(08:00):
soon I got a phone call fromDisney at the time out in Anaheim at
the time, they owned the AnaheimDucks and the Anaheim Angels, UM and
I interviewed with them. It wasmy friends from the Dallas Stars that recommended
me to Disney. And my jokewith them at the time was, you
guys just want me out of themarket because I'm taking too much market share
(08:22):
from you with our sales. UMand that's just a joke. UM.
So I went out to Disney.UM. I was director of sales for
the Ducks. UM. I hada little bit of responsibility with the Angels,
not a lot, but UM outthere. Uh My drinking was increasing,
but again I couldn't I saw nothingwrong with it. UM. And
(08:45):
pretty soon I got a phone callfrom uh, my friend with the Dallas
Stars, UM, who was areally really good friend, and he said,
mister Hicks. Tom Hicks was theowner of the Stars at the time,
said mister Hicks bought the Rangers.Um And and I said, it's
it's tough. It's tough when youhave both because if you think of a
Major League Baseball schedule and a NationalHockey League schedule, you've got forty one
(09:09):
hockey games, you've got eighty onebaseball games, You've got spring training preseason,
you've got postseason hopefully and Stanley Cuphopefully. You know that it's a
tremendous amount of work and you're ina budget cycle for two to three months
for each entity out of the year. Plus we had responsibilities in the nonprofit
world. You know, almost allof the vice presidents were involved with a
(09:31):
charity somehow, someway. You wantme to keep going. Yeah, you
crashed, Yes, let me getyou to the crash. Crashed after we
go back. That is a factI didn't. I talk about having two
tanks and two napalm guns. That'sabout how I went out. We went
(09:52):
from the Stars Rangers Ruddy an AmericanAirline Center, our CEO, Jimmy Light,
went to Arizona, took four ofus with him. Then he came
back and in oh four the lockoutcame in the NHL and I was with
just the coyotes there and when thewhen the lockout came, I was approached
(10:18):
by one of my suiteholders whose commercialreal estates, Stuart Title and Trust,
and he asked me to come onboard as his VP of Business Development.
And here's what I know looking back, it was a tremendous amount of money
it was a country club membership atArizona Country Club. It was an unlimited
expense account. And when I sayunlimited, I mean unlimited. I traveled
(10:39):
the world with my clients, tookhim to the Ryder Cup at you know,
in a k club, the OpenChampionship at Saint Andrew's, seven World
Series, four Super Bowls, twoKentucky Derbies. I could go on,
and um, I just don't thinkthat I was prepared at the time for
(11:01):
that. Plus, um, itjust accelerated my patient And an alcoholic,
it's a progressive disease, and Ijust kept adding to it, adding to
it, adding to it. Sobut I had gotten married by twenty By
twenty eleven, my drinking had gottento a point and I had had back
(11:28):
surgery and they introduced me to morphinein the hospital, and then they gave
me a pain doctor. And youdon't give an alcoholic like me a pain
doctor. Um. So I startedmanipulating the doctors, and by twenty twelve,
I'd burned down my marriage. SoI got a divorce in October of
twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, I wrote, I
(11:48):
wrote on my residuals from the commercialreal estate part of my life. And
for three years I laid on acouch and I had gotten up to three
hundred perkose that a month out ofall to get up amy and to go
to bed, frequent cocaine use anda bottle of Scotch day. It's amazing.
Um. By August of fifteen,I was I was ready to check
(12:13):
out. I was done. Ididn't think I had I was living in
so much I'll just call it hell. I was living in hell um self
imposed on my dad, UM,and I just wanted to go. I
didn't think I had anything to offeranyone in life, and so I attempted
suicide in August of fifteen. Itdidn't work, because I think I'm still
(12:33):
here today. But that kind oftakes up to the crash. Now,
let's come back up. Let's getto the good stuff. Man, it
is good and I'm certain I'll cry. I always do. Um. Twenty
sixteen, I happened to watch churchon TV for the first time. I
(12:54):
hadn't had any spirituality or contact with, you know, a church in thirty
plus years when I got out ofhigh school. That was at the end
of that well. I started watchingchurch on TV in twenty sixteen. In
twenty seventeen, I got invited byjust a wonderful, wonderful man and his
wife to attend church in person,and that was Highlands in North Scottsdale.
(13:20):
And the thing that really resonates withme, Tommy that first service, I
had not gone into a church inthirty plus years, and of course I
didn't know that that Paul wasn't elderin the church, and so they stood
on the eighth row. Let meassure you, my people, we stood
on the back row or close tothe back and I don't remember what the
(13:43):
sermon was that day, but Iwhen the worship band came back up on
stage, they played amazing Grace andI had thirty years of tears coming down
my face. And I looked atPaul and I asked him do they play
this every week? And he justhe has a patented Paul smile, Pek
(14:05):
smile, and he just shook hishead no. And I think somewhere inside
that day I knew I was home, but I wasn't done yet. For
the rest of seventeen I was attendingchurch in person, and I was drawing
closer to God. And in twentyeighteen, I decided to get baptized and
(14:28):
on Easter Sunday, which was Aprilfirst that year, and nothing out of
the ordinary happened that day I gotbaptized. But seven days later, on
April eighth, when I opened myeyes, just as much as I know
I'm sitting here looking at you,I knew in my head that it was
over. It was done. Thecraving and obsession I've been removed. And
(14:52):
there's only one answer for that,and that's God. All right, very
good. We got a lot moreor talk about. I want to find
out ways people can help get involvedwith you and what you're doing, but
I want to take them an interimention. One of our other sponsors, Pranahn
Brantahn, is at a great littlegift shop in downtown Richardson, and we
want to thank them for their supportof all the nonprofits that you see on
(15:16):
our show and what they do inthe community. And when you walk in
you'll find energy, wellness, andgifts for the soul. Now, we've
talked many times on the show aboutthe many gifts you can find there,
but wellness today is so important toeveryone, and you can take charge of
your health by committing to the practiceof relaxation and rejuvenation that the healing sessions
(15:37):
provide. Healing energy can improve stressand anxiety levels, reduce physical and emotional
pain, and improve the quality ofsleep. So contact Terry at Panhahn dot
com to book your healing session.That's Terry T. E. Rii at
Piranahn dot com. All right,we've got a little bit of spiritual health
(16:00):
there and here as well. Tellus a little bit more where you are
now and what you're doing and howpeople can get involved. That's great,
um, Chefs of the shelters.Again, it came out of a service
opportunity for me. I just wantedto, you know, to give back.
I'd gotten back into the commercial realestate business here and I was back
making money and a couple of otheropportunities came, so I started cooking for
(16:25):
Dallas twenty four hour Club. Thatwas the first time I'd ever cooked for,
you know, I don't know morethan ten people or whatever that might
be. I've always been a barbecueguy, like I can cook brisket and
I cook part about, but I'dnever done play to dinners at all,
and they gave me an opportunity.The day before thanks to giving me a
twenty nineteen to cook for two hundredof their residents that were there, two
(16:49):
hundred residents and neighborhood people. Andsomehow I pulled it off because I promise
you I'm not that talented. Andthat's where the journey started of I found,
you know, I really inside me. I loved cooking. And then
we got into COVID, I gotthe Culinary Institute of America's textbook. I
(17:10):
taught myself how to cook while Iwas still working with Capital Title, and
one shelter turned into two, turnedinto four, turned into eight, and
today, to get to your question, today we are up to thirty four
sober shelters. That's one two hundredand fifty five men, women and adolescents
in early sobriety that we get toserve once a month. We served the
(17:30):
meals that speak of dignity and respect. You know, part of my story
was I was after I got sober, I was homeless for ten months and
God did a hard reset on me. This guy that had a lot of
arrogance in his life needed to understandhow to give back. And that's when
he taught me in that ten months. So when I taught myself to cook.
(17:52):
I said, why don't I startcooking for these shelters. But I
don't want to just do you know, ham sandwiches and butter sandwiches. I
want to do meals that speak ofdignity, your respect. So how people
can help, We love volunteers.I had a group of teenagers in our
commercial kitchen last week and they createdtwelve hundred of one item. I taught
them the recipe beginning to end,and then I said the catches. You
(18:15):
have to make it for twelve hundred, and then we got to deliver them
to three of our thirty four sobershelters up. They can help through volunteering,
definitely. They can help through donations. Donations you can go to our
website Chef to the Shelters dot org. Here you can find that on Venmo
as well. You said your selftaught, but yet you've won numerous culinary
(18:38):
awards and people have seen our showbefore. No how big golf fans we
are. And I saw on yourresume that you won the white jacket from
the Augusta National Golf Club. Tellus about that, about your experience at
the Atagassa. That's a pretty highlevel chefs. It's still very surreal that
(18:59):
I even get to go there.And towards the end of twenty twenty,
I was contacted by somebody from mysports career that asked me if I would
consider cooking at Augusta. She hadbeen kind of following my story on my
Facebook and I told her that Iwould be I would consider taking the garbage
out at Augusta because I'm a biggolfer. I agree with you. We
(19:22):
were talking about it, I'm abig golfer to the site, and she
set me up with an interview withChef Roberto and he's the executive chef there,
and I explained to him on thephone when he said, you know,
once we got through the interview,I explained to him, I said,
you do realize I've never been ina commercial kitchen, and he just
assured me it'd be okay. AndI got in and I cut my teeth.
(19:45):
In the first two years was it? I get to learn so much
from the true professional chefs, andthey bring him in from all across the
country. It is such an unbelievableexperience. And this year when I arrived,
um my head chef on my floorchef Jesse. On the first day,
he pointed to the prep kitchen andhe said, this is your kitchen
(20:07):
this year. And then course inmy head, I'm like, I'll want
me to burn this thing down.Um, I do not feel that,
you know, I'm I'm qualified orwas qualified for something like that. And
then he said, uh, theseare going to be you know, there's
eight people that were going to bein that kitchen, like on a regular
basis, because people float in andout from from the lines prep kitchen,
(20:30):
other responsibilities. But I had eightpeople that first timers at Augusta and we're
in Berkman's place. We only cookfor the members of Augusta and their guests.
Um, it's not the pimento cheese, although those pimento cheeses are very
good. Tommy I will tell youthat. Um, it's just a different
level. And for me to bethere, um again was surreal to begin
(20:53):
with. But UM I looked atthe eight the eight other chefs or culinary
students that we're in that prep kitchenwith me. I looked at that as
an advantage. It's kind of likewhen Lumtar Park hired me. I asked,
why didn't you hire someone else thathas experience in horse racing and Steve
Sex's invest mentor in business I've everhad, Steve said, because you don't
(21:15):
have any bad ideas like you,you know. And anyway, so we're
going through the week. I'm acharts and graphs guy. If you look
in my house and my friend's laughbecause I have them all up on my
wall, probably why I won't everattract a woman to get married again.
But charts and graphs work in myhead, like if I can see the
(21:36):
numbers, I can figure out anykind of system and scale it. Maybe
that comes from opening, you know, for arenage or stadiums in the credit.
But so I had those running andwe got to Saturday, which was
third round at Augusta, and thatwas a very important day for me.
I'm very fortunate that that that date, April eighth, comes each year while
(22:02):
I'm at Augusta and it was thirdround Saturday. It was my fifth year
sobriety birthday. So a lot ofemotion inside and it really didn't come out
until I get back to the hotelthat night. We go in and about
you know, four thirty in themorning, and we didn't leave until seven
at night and I got back tothe hotel and I just, you know,
it's kind of like the tears forthirty years of you know, not
(22:23):
being connected with God. It's,you know, tears of five years of
sobriety, because if you drank anddrugged like I did, you'd understand the
grace that you could feel. AndI did so, all right, So
that's that. And I get upthe next morning at three and I'm in
the kitchen by four or four fifteen, whatever it was, and I'm at
(22:44):
one hundred and fifty miles an hour, and two of the Sioux chefs come
by me at about four forty fivein the morning and they said, we
need to see you down in thebullpen with Chef Jesse. And I've never
been to the bullpen where that youknow, head chef and the Sioux chefs
me. You know, it's apecking order, you know, a hierarchy
there. And I'm going down thestairs and I'm going farther back than five
(23:07):
years, and I'm trying to think, you know, what have I done
wrong? You know, I didn'tcome to work drunk. I did come
to work, you know, Ican't think of why I'm going to the
bullpen and when the door opened,I remember I just saw Chef Jesse's face
and it wasn't you know, itwasn't a bad face. And I was
just like, what's happening. Theyhave the ability to give out two white
(23:29):
jackets on final round Sunday each year, and he brought he pulled a white
jacket out and he handed it tome and he said, you've earned this
and I need you to put iton and get back up to the floor.
And the other part of that andthis is, you know, this
is God doing for me what Icouldn't do for myself. Sunday it was
(23:53):
also Easter Sunday this year, andif you remember in the story, I
got baptized on Easter Sunday and sevendays later woke up sober. And for
me to be around the professionals thatI get to be around and learn from
them the only answers God. We'vetalked about so many things in such a
(24:19):
great journey. And I mentioned mypartner Tricia, who's publisher of a youth
SPCE today and we published articles ofhope of ambition of young people can basically
you can do it. And whenyou and I first talked on the phone.
I saw that in you, andone of the reasons I want you
to join us here, it's becausethat's the message we want to put out.
(24:41):
And I thank you so much.We've talked about a lot of things.
Is there something that we've overlooked,something you would like to say that
I haven't asked you that you wouldlike to add. This is your time
to tell us what you want.I have friends here in Dallas because I
grew up here, but I burntmy world down in Arizona and I came
(25:02):
back. And it may sound harshto some of your viewers, but when
a friend says about me, whetherit's in front of me or you know,
not with me not there, whenthey say if mcqua can get sober,
anybody can, I think that isprobably one of the best compliments anybody
(25:25):
can give God, and give meby the way I drank. And I'll
tie that in with something you justsaid, like young people that you know
want some hope and want some Ican tell you this. If a guy
like me can get in the kitchenand teach himself the fundamentals of cooking,
(25:47):
anybody can. But following that,you have to be surrounded by professionals that
you can learn from. I thinkthat's great. We really appreciate your time
here and begin with us. AndI also again want to thank our sponsored
title sponsor, h Niagara Conservation.Good news is you can now buy their
money saving water saving products online,so go to uh Niagaracorp dot com check
(26:11):
that out, or even even goto home Depot dot com and see the
line of products there. And alsoour friends at Parana Haven UH for the
wellness in your life. UH goto contact Terry at Paranahn dot com and
book your healing session there. It'sjust a wonderful, wonderful experience. So
(26:32):
thank you Mike so much. Thankyou to our sponsors, and UH we'll
be here next week. Thank youyou bet
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