Cooking for an army

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Ruthann Wright was nervous. Before the Cedar River erupted from its banks, 500 was the largest number of people, Wright, the executive chef at the Sodexo kitchen at AEGON, had ever cooked for at one time.

Then the flooding came, damaging the Salvation Army's center of operations and kitchen at C Avenue NW. The charity turned to Sodexo, a food service company, for help in feeding flood victims.

Suddenly, Wright was faced with cooking for 2,700 hungry mouths a day.

"I was losing sleep over it," said Wright, 48, of Cedar Rapids. "I would go to sleep and then I would wake up and wonder to myself, 'Oh, my God. Can we really do this? Can we really get this food out of here?'"

They did it.

Tonight, when the four Salvation Army mobile canteens still in operation hand out their last suppers to flood workers and victims, it will mark the end of 35 days of tasty cooperation between private business, non-profits and volunteer chefs, an effort that produced and distributed an estimated 57,710 hot meals.

It all started, strangely enough, with a canceled pork roast dinner.

AEGON had been planning to provide the appreciation day dinner for its 3,500 employees on June 13. But when the dinner was canceled because of the flood, Sodexo, one of two companies that contract with AEGON to prepare food for the insurance and financial services company's employees, was left with a whole lot of pork in its freezer.

Deb Cordell, a general manager at Sodexo, said the original plan was to feed the pork to as many flood victims as possible. But then an AEGON executive pitched a more ambitious idea.

"He called and asked me if we would be able to help the Salvation Army out," she said.

The Salvation Army was attempting to feed flood victims using the kitchen at Viola Gibson Elementary, site of an American Red Cross emergency shelter. It was clear the Salvation Army needed a larger space, and that's where AEGON's kitchen came in.

It was also clear that the huge effort needed more chefs.

Around this time, chefs Lisa Whitmore, 27, and her husband, Benjamin Whitmore, 29, of Ottumwa, were making batch after batch of goulash to feed Iowa National Guard members who had been sent to their city to reinforce levees.

With that work finished, the Whitmores, members of the Iowa chapter of the American Culinary Federation, offered to help the Cedar Rapids Salvation Army.

When they and other chefs showed up the weekend of June 21, Cordell informed them they would be preparing a familiar dish.

"We thought it was really ironic that they would ask us to prepare goulash," Lisa Whitmore said, laughing. "It was really hectic that first day, working in a new kitchen, but you just adapt."

And so it went, with Sodexo employees and volunteer chefs from Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Arizona dropping in to prepare meals. They used mostly donated food items to produce tons of fajitas, spaghetti, hamburgers, chicken casserole and chili.

The group worked seven days a week, completing the meals by 4 p.m. The meals were delivered -- by as many as eight Salvation Army mobile canteens -- to flooded neighborhoods and flood relief workers throughout the city.

When no volunteer chefs were available, Sodexo staffers would take over, producing the enormous amount of food in addition to their usual food preparation. Horizon's Meals on Wheels program and volunteers also helped, producing lunches to go along with the Salvation Army's hot dinners.

Among the volunteers working at AEGON was Carlo Castagneri, a Minneapolis chef. He volunteered for about a week.

"I just feel for the people here," Castagneri said this week. "We're just doing a little bit here to help. It isn't much. It's just a little bit."

Flood victim Laura Winterowd, 81, begs to differ. Her home on J Street SW flooded, and having the daily Salvation Army meal was a gift.

"You can get things done in your house instead of working in the kitchen," she said this week. "It has meant a lot."

Dennis Flom, 60, of Omaha, Neb., also begs to differ. A commander with the Salvation Army, Flom said the volunteer efforts, along with the support shown by companies like AEGON and Sodexo, saved the Salvation Army hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Flom said the Salvation Army will transition to providing spiritual and emotional support to the community in August.

As for Ruthann Wright, who worked 31 of the 35 days preparing food for flood victims, in addition to her work for Sodexo, the crash course in big-batch cooking has bolstered her confidence. The key, she said, is to start with a little batch and slowly add ingredient after ingredient.

"I'm pumped because I know they can do this now," Wright said, a gleam in her eye. "They just tell me how many they need and then I do it."

By Stephen Schmidt, The Gazettte