“We’re grateful to The Salvation Army for lending their trucks and letting us do some cooking,” said Nafees Alam, Vice President of DRG Concepts.
On a hot sunny day in Moore, Oklahoma, tornado victims stopping by the Multi-Agency Resource Center were greeted by savory smells drifting from the mobile kitchens inside The Salvation Army’s canteens.
“Everybody wants to help, wants to give, and for us it was a natural,” explained Fran Gallagher of DRG Concepts.
The burgers were straight out of Dallas, compliments of Chop House Burger located downtown. Four professional chefs got up bright and early in order to make the three hour drive and have hot-off-the-grill burgers ready by noon.
Working out of a mobile kitchen is not normal for the guest chefs, but that didn’t seem to be a problem.
“You make this look easy. Everything is set up, lined up,” Alam said of the canteen.
“For our chefs here, they’re working in this truck on commercial kitchen equipment. They’re not trying to make do with what you [The Salvation Army] have available. Our chefs work on equipment like this every day. They know the stove, they know the temperature, and this helps them to get the burger right every time,” says AJ Joglekar, Corporate Executive Chef.
The fresh burgers took time to cook, but guests didn’t seem to mind. By day’s end 985 people had been served.
For the canteen guests who traveled three hours one way to serve tornado victims, it was a trip well-worth the time on the road.
“…just seeing the devastation on the way in, that’s going to stay on my mind a long, long time. This has been a really humbling experience,” said Gallagher.
