Operation BBQ Relief in Action

When barbecue is handed to you, it’s usually a time of celebration or a moment of friendship, unless it has been prepared at a cookoff. Then a pitmaster in a competitive spirit may have something to prove and claim, “This barbecue is the best.”

Cooking equipment sets up quickly after a hurricane has damaged an area.

When barbecue is handed to someone after a hurricane or another natural disaster, it’s a different scene. In this case, the barbecue has been prepared by a volunteer with Operation BBQ Relief, a group of champion cooks. The person receiving the barbecue may be homeless or could have been waiting for a hot meal because the power is out and won’t be restored for days. Such was the scene when I saw Operation BBQ Relief in action for the first time in Wilmington, NC, in September 2018. Hurricane Florence had just brought destructive winds, storm surge, torrential rains, and excessive flooding.

Volunteers work many hours each shift during a deployment.

OBR had taken over the huge parking lot of a vacant shopping complex, where trailers, campers, tents, and cookers had been assembled to feed people devastated by the hurricane as well as first responders and other emergency personnel who were providing help to those affected by the hurricane. At its peak, OBR served 30,000 meals a day as it used six massive cookers that can handle 2,000 pounds of meat at a time. Before leaving Wilmington, the nonprofit served 320,000 meals – and thousands of pounds of turkey, pork and beef – in 18 days. Other volunteer groups such as the Salvation Army distributed the food at sites throughout the area.

Volunteers with Salvation Army provide hot meals at a distribution site.

While in Wilmington, its longest deployment, OBR surpassed its 2 millionth meal since 2011, when it was founded to serve residents of Joplin, Missouri, that had been devastated by a tornado. Since then, it has quickly expanded and now mobilizes teams to any area of the United States where a natural disaster has struck. I have just signed up to be an OBR volunteer and hope to contribute to OBR’s mission soon.

Large quantities of barbecue meals are picked up and delivered throughout an area devastated by a natural disaster.

Operation BBQ Relief has created a different image of barbecue than the usual one of someone enjoying a simple meal with meat slowly cooked. OBR’s quick response to those in need gives a new significance to the question, “Want some hot barbecue?”

Hot barbecue cooked by OBR is a welcome meal by many people after a hurricane has struck.

Giving Back at Urbanna

Bill Jones, contest organizer and OBR
lead for Virginia, serves Brunswick
stew on Friday to early arrivals.

BBQ Gives Back is appropriately named. Held in Urbanna, Virginia, the cookoff generates funds for Operation BBQ Relief (OBR) and also supports a local food bank.

OBR is a group of volunteers who respond to disasters throughout the United States and feed victims and first responders. All net proceeds of the event are donated to OBR, and a voluntary collection of funds for OBR is also held. Last year, in its inaugural event, the contest contributed $6,500 to OBR.

In addition to the meats the teams cook for the contest, each competing team cooks a pork butt that is provided to the Team Thanksgiving Food Bank, based in Churchview, Va. After the contest was held in March last year, 500 pounds of cooked meat were donated to the food bank that it then gave to families in need through September 2017 without its having to buy any additional meat. The contest also held a voluntary collection of dry and canned goods, and cooking teams and judges willingly contributed.

The recreation center at Bethpage was the site of judging activities.

Although the purpose of the cookoff is to “give back,” the focus of each cooking team is on preparing winning barbecue. In the contest’s second year of being sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, 75 teams competed for a total of $11,000 in prize money. Held at the Bethpage Camp-Resort on the shores of the Rappahannock River, the contest has ample room for the cooking teams. Because so many teams were competing, 11 tables of judges were need to evaluate all the entries. It’s one of the largest cookoffs that I’ve attended.

Judges relax inside the recreation center before the first entries arrive.

Urbanna, a historic colonial port town, brags that it has more boats than people and that it is the home of Virginia’s Oyster Festival each November. It has gained also a reputation as the site in March where barbecue cooks and judges demonstrate their generosity and community spirit.

Awards await the winning teams.

BBQ Gives Back is fittingly named. Everyone enjoys participating in an event with such a noteworthy purpose. Being able to judge great barbecue is also a benefit for the judges.

Bethpage Camp-Resort is popular with both cooking teams and judges.

Judging the Best Barbecue

[Note: This post, prepared originally for OutreachNC magazine, is hosted on the magazine’s website, with excerpts and a link to the website posted here.]

Being a judge at a barbecue cookoff is the best way to spend a weekend. Imagine tasting the best barbecue prepared by dedicated and enthusiastic pitmasters.

Judging at barbecue contests connects me to cooking traditions of our state, which boasts a rich history, sometimes united but often divided between western and eastern regions.

Barbecue fans in our area argue seriously about how to cook (wood vs. gas, whole hog vs. shoulder) – as well as the sauce (vinegar-pepper only or with ketchup added) and meat (pork only or also chicken and beef brisket). I don’t enter such arguments. I simply enjoy the style of each region and contest and try to stay true to the traditions and standards.

On the morning of a cookoff, the cooking sites are absolutely quiet – hardly a sound is heard -- as the cooks concentrate on their final preparations. When photographer Katherine Clark accompanied me at one whole hog contest, the sun was slowly rising as the judging began at 8 a.m.

Continue reading with an online version of the July 2017 issue of OutreachNC ...