On Sunday, as part The Jewish Federation’s Fed Up with Hunger Purim events, Jewish volunteers delivered food, toiletries, and other care essentials to people in need all over Los Angeles in the Purim mitzvah of matanot l’evyonim (giving gifts to the poor).

A group of volunteers from Federation’s Young Entertainment Division (some of whom helped organize the Ghostbusters JFS/SOVA benefit screening at Hollywood Forever during Sukkot) and their friends joined me to cook a meal for 60 residents of Proyecto Pastoral’s Guadalupe Homeless Project, the only men’s shelter in East Los Angeles (recipes below).

Even before the cooking started, the volunteers spent the earlier part of the afternoon buying all of the ingredients for our menu.  Sara Reich, who did the yeoman’s job of coordinating all of the volunteers and the food procurement, bought 35+ pounds of chicken.  Jeannine Hamaoui cleared out the produce departments of Vons and Albertsons to get the 30 bunches of Swiss Chard that we needed.  Rachel Fleischer brought enough chicken stock to fill a large kiddie pool.

With the groceries, the group converged around 3:00 p.m. at the basement kitchen at the Dolores Mission in East L.A. where the meal was to be cooked and served.  They immediately got to work.  One team filled and organized the larder and another team started on kitchen grunt work, otherwise known as prep.  They chopped carrots, celery, cabbage, squeezed limes, picked cilantro, seeded jalapenos, rehydrated guajillo chilis, browned chicken, caramelized onions, fire-roasted red peppers, soaked rice, cleaned and stemmed a forest of chard, and above all else, they diced onions.  Lots of them.  Tearfully.

Over the course of the afternoon, all of their prep work slowly came together to form the different components of our menu.  By the time the residents of the Guadalupe Homeless Project arrived at 7:00 pm, the carrots, celery, cabbage, and chili paste had turned into Vegetable “Pozole” Soup.  The chicken, caramelized onions, and roasted red peppers had become Arroz Con Pollo.  The limes, jalapenos, and cilantro became the Salsa Verde garnish.  The raw chard was wilted and then combined with some beef stock and white bean to become the Braised Swiss Chard.

After serving the meals, a number of our volunteers sat down with the residents of the shelter and ate with them.  This is one of the important differences between cooking a meal at GHP and doing the same at other homeless shelters.  The service doesn’t end at cooking and serving the meal.  It also includes sitting and eating with the men, which provides them with some social interaction, an important piece of feeling cared for.

As I watched the volunteers eating with the GHP residents, it occurred to me why matanot l’evyonim is the lesser known Purim mitzvah brother of mishloach manot (giving gifts to friends).  It’s because they’re both the same.  When you give gifts to people who are poor or needy and you take a moment to interact with them to get to know them and try to see them, you actually transcend the act of giving a gift to someone less fortunate than you.  In the process of matanot l’evyonim, you achieve mishloach manot; by getting to know someone in the process of giving them charity, you’ll end up having given a gift to a friend.

As we were wrapping up, one of the residents came up to us and excitedly told us that he didn’t know what kind of soup we had made but it was the best soup he ever had.  It was so good, he actually came back a few minutes later to tell us once again.  I told him that it was a “pozole” and his eyes lit up.

“Pozole?!  No!” he said.  “To me, it was a vegetable soup but it was the best kind of vegetable soup ever.  It was so good.  I never tasted anything like it before.  When are you guys coming back?  I want to be sure I’m here.”

As a former chef, I’ve kicked around in some fine restaurants and cooked some very fine food and I have never received a compliment like that.  Who knew that of all things I’ve ever cooked, it would be a humble vegetable soup that would elicit the most heartfelt compliment.

The resident was so excited that he told his story to all of the Young Entertainment Division volunteers who smiled and pointed at me telling him that I was the “chef.”  This was nice but the compliment really belongs to the volunteers.  Any chef worth his salt knows that he is only as good as his brigade.  As my brigade on Sunday, the group of volunteers put their hearts and souls into procuring, preparing, and cooking the meal for the residents of GHP.  I saw it as they worked through the afternoon.  Most importantly, the GHP resident could taste the love in the soup.

And here, for your home entertaining pleasure, Sunday’s recipes scaled down for service for 4-6.

The Best Vegetable Soup Ever (Formerly known as “Vegetarian Pozole Soup”)

Olive Oil
1 medium or small onion
1 carrots
1 stalk celery
2 green peppers
2 dried guadjillo peppers
1 chipotle pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 quarts vegetable broth or water and broth cubes
1 29oz can hominy, drained
salt to taste
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 12oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small cabbage or 1/2 regular cabbage
Herb sash (bay leaf, thyme, oregano)

Prep

Rinse guadjillo peppers, remove stems and seeds, and soak in hot water, when soft blend peppers with soaking water, chipotle pepper, garlic and dried oregano to make chili paste.  Add more soaking water, if too thick.  End product should be a paste.

Chop onions, carrots, celery, green peppers and cabbage into large chunks.

Mince garlic.

Tie rosemary, oregano, and bay leaf with kitchen twine or make a sash with cheese cloth.

Method

In a medium pot, sauté onions on medium heat for about two minutes.  Once onions have sweated down, add carrots, celery, green peppers and sauté for three minutes.  Add cabbage and continue to sweat for two to three minutes. Add chili mixture, herb tie/sash, and remaining 1 teaspoon of oregano.  Cook for a minute to develop the chili paste.  Add broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer until cabbage is soft.  Add black beans and hominy.  Season with salt and pepper.  Simmer until ready to serve (be sure to remove the herb tie/sash).

Arroz Con Pollo

1 chicken (three to four pounds) cut up into 8 pieces
3 limes
Spanish olive oil
2 onions
3 red peppers
4 cloves of garlic,
1 quart of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of ground cumin, plus extra to season chicken Dried bay leaves
1/2 dry white wine (omitted from the GHP recipe)
1/4 cup of sherry vinegar
1.5 cups of long grain rice
4 cups of chicken stock
5 saffron threads
1 bag of frozen sweet peas

Prep List

Roast Red Peppers, peel and dice.

Dice onions.

Mince garlic.

Juice limes into bowl for chicken.

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, combine chicken with lime juice. Season liberally with salt, pepper and cumin.  In a large dutch oven or high sided pan, heat the olive oil. Brown the chicken over medium high heat – about 3-5 minutes on each side.  Remove the chicken from the pan, and set aside.

Add the onions, roasted red peppers, and garlic to the pan. Cook until the onion starts to caramelize. Add the tomato sauce, cumin, and bay leaf; cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the chicken back into the pan, the white wine, sherry vinegar, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes.  Add the stock, bring to a boil, and add the rice and saffron.

Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, and cook in the oven for 45-60 minutes.

Remove the rice from the oven and add the peas, fluffing the rice and mixing in the peas at the same time. Drizzle with Salsa Verde.

Salsa Verde

1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1/4 cup unsalted, unroasted almonds
2 limes, juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chicken stock

Blend all ingredients together.  The end product should be of a saucey consistency.  If it is too thick, thin with chicken stock.  If too thin, thicken with olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.

Braised Swiss Chard and White Bean

2 cloves of garlic
2 bunches of Swiss chard
1 can of white beans
1/2 cup of beef broth (can substitute vegetable broth, if desired)

Prep

Clean the Swiss chard leaves and chop, keeping the stalks.

Open white beans and drain liquid.

Method

Pour the olive oil into a large frying pan and heat.  Saute garlic for 3-4 minutes. Toss in Swiss chard leaves and stir.  Once the chard leaves are wilted, add white beans and broth. Simmer on low for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Mike Wolf brings us along for his weekly ritual – Sundays at JFS/SOVA. Mike and other volunteers collect, pack, and distribute food to families and individuals who don’t get enough to eat.

JFS/SOVA is a nonsectarian program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles dedicated to alleviating hunger and poverty in the community. The majority of JFS/SOVA clients have stable housing, but their monthly incomes are insufficient to meet their own and/or their family’s needs. JFS/SOVA pantries assist an average of 7,000 people each month.

Pantries are stocked with high quality, nutritious canned and packaged foods, bakery products and fresh produce. The pantry provides a 3-4 day supply of free groceries and personal hygiene products (when needed) for each family member. Sites are colorful, welcoming, and comfortable environments where priority is placed on respecting the dignity and individuality of all who seek help.

Within each food pantry facility is a Resource Center. The Resource Center’s professional staff and para-professional volunteers provide information and referral to other community services and help people find solutions to other challenges. Examples of referrals include shelter, free medical services and vision care, homeless services, clothing resources, employment, senior services and child care.

In addition, through the new Community Connections “one stop” project, community specialists provide services on-site on a regular basis. Currently those services include free legal counseling, job counseling, food stamp enrollment, and assistance with utility bills.

Each site also features a Children’s Corner, where children can enjoy books while waiting, and then select a few books to take home to create their own libraries.

Check out photos from our last Sunday @ Sova.

“Munoz says the idea came to him one day, when waiting to pick up his students at a routine school bus stop. “I saw people throwing away food at a food factory,” he says adamantly, “I thought, why are they throwing that away? I can give those to the hungry people I see on the street everyday.” He asked if he could pick up the perfectly fresh food and take it to the hungry strangers, he’s seen everyday. Strangers whose faces became so familiar.

“Munoz was inspired to help by “God and my Mom. Since I was little, my mom teach me to share, and that’s what we’re doing here.” Although Munoz isn’t getting paid for this second job (remember, he actually has to use own money to do this), he seems so happy in service — Just by the tone in his voice, you can feel his passion for compassion. His eagerness to serve brings him joy. He says he’s happy to have a paying job, so he can continue doing this. “You have to see their smiles, on their faces. When they smile, I always say that’s how I get paid.”

Excerpted from an article by Toan Lam on HuffingtonPost.com.