Local non-profit serves “healthiest meal ever” to homeless vets at Stand Down

By Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor

Just Call Us Volunteers is a local non-profit that focuses its attention on San Diego’s homeless community by feeding them fresh and nutritious meals throughout the year. It is operated by three women: President, Founder and Chef Julie Darling, Vice President / Director of Volunteer Training and Chef Kim Moreira, and Vice President and Director of Social Media Angie Brewer.  Moreira is also a retired US Naval officer and Brewer is a former Navy Chief Petty Officer; as a result, homeless veterans are a big focus of their efforts.

Last month, the organization along with 65 volunteers, had the coveted role of serving the final meal to 1,400 homeless veterans at the annual Veteran’s Stand Down event, held July 13 – 15 at Balboa Field, Downtown.

Downtown News interviewed the women about their experience.

In the past you have served the volunteers at Stand Down. How many years did you do that?

For the past two years we served the volunteers who built the tent city for Stand Down.  That meal is fun and rewarding in its own way, as it is typically mostly active duty military, some just back from Iraq and Afghanistan, who set-up the tents. For those meals, we only needed to prepare food for about 150 people.  This year, we needed to prepare food for 1400!!

 This was the first year you actually served the attending veterans – how different was that experience from serving the volunteers?

Really not much difference except in the amount of prep time. We are already accustomed to serving 600-700 people during the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays at the shelters, so we have a lot of experience with large groups.

We started on Friday afternoon before the Sunday meal, with some assistance from volunteer chefs and fishmongers cutting up the fish.  Then we spent all day Saturday chopping veggies for the tacos, salad, and for putting into the rice (we put veggies in as many dishes as we can just to add additional nutrition), cooking beans and Spanish rice, and baking brownies.

We also pre-staged all of the dry goods: plates & plasticware for 1400, napkins, serving pans, etc. – everything to be a self-contained caterer for the meal. It was a bonus for us to have access to the kitchen on-site at Stand Down. That was a big help in keeping things warm as we served.  We typically have two portable griddles that we take with us to grill the fish and warm the tortillas.  This time, we had access to the on-site griddles, stovetops and ovens.

What was it like for you two Navy veterans to serve these homeless veterans? Did you get lots of feedback?

As Navy veterans, it is heartbreaking to see the homeless veterans, particularly the younger ones.   Frankly, I wish there was a persistent Veterans Stand Down, every day, until it isn’t needed.  When you see what just three days can do for veterans, it’s hard not to think about what could be accomplished with a little more time and intense focus on the whole person with the Stand Down approach.

The veterans we serve are always so grateful.  So many of them said “thank you” to our volunteers as they made their way through the serving line.  Two of the best comments were from Phil Landis, President and CEO of Veterans Village of San Diego and Darcy Povich, Chaplain and Stand Down Coordinator. They both said that it was the best and healthiest meal ever served in the history of Stand Down.  They said that they had received so many positive comments about our food and were especially grateful and happy about the fresh green salad we served.

What was on the menu?

First, I have to say that we could not do this event without some very generous donors:  Specialty Produce, Catalina Offshore Products, Restaurant Depot and Sysco donated much of the fresh food and dry goods that made the meal we served at Stand Down possible.

We really pride ourselves in trying to use as much whole food and fresh vegetables that we can, and the least amount of processed food as practical.  We try to hand-make as much as possible.  For instance, the salsas were all hand-made and cheese shredded by hand by our volunteers the day before we served.  Let’s put it this way, our volunteers get a lot of experience chopping vegetables.

The menu was grilled fish tacos on warm corn tortillas with shredded cabbage, cotija cheese, fresh house made salsa and sour cream sauce; southwestern caeser salad with tortilla strips, Mexican rice and black beans.  We also served various desserts, including chocolate brownies, cookies and frosted cupcakes.

What was your favorite part of the weekend?

It’s hard to pick a favorite, but a few things stick out.

Top on the list would have to be the comment by the Veterans Village President/CEO, Phil Landis, about how flavorful and healthy our meal was, how much that meant to the organizers of Stand Down and how much the veterans loved it.  It really shows how much we are all starved for simple healthy unprocessed food.   It was the best compliment we could have received and all three of us got a little choked up over that comment.  That meant the world to us.

I love that by the time we served the final meal of the three-day long event, when the nearly 1400 people made their way through the serving line, it was many times hard to tell which ones were the homeless veterans and which ones were Stand Down volunteers. It just goes to show you what three days of regular showers, haircuts, clean clothes, regular meals, medical care, restful sleep off of the ground and a positive supportive environment can make on people. We feed the homeless a lot; so to see that kind of change in these folks in that short amount of time was really amazing to witness.

Definitely not least on the list would have to be seeing how much our volunteers really get into the event and how hard they work to make the meal happen. We are, after all, called, “Just Call Us Volunteers.”   We are all about the volunteers. We are not associated with any religious or political organization; not that there is anything wrong with those organizations. On the contrary, there is more than enough need for all types of groups to get involved and contribute what they can.  We are just a group of well-meaning adults (and kids) giving back to our community. We don’t require a big commitment and provide an easy way for people to get involved.  In some ways, it’s just as much about getting people involved in their community, stepping out of their own comfort zones and doing things they’ve never done before, as it is about providing good food to the homeless.

Oh, one more thing! Coolest visual of the day was to see Chef Andrew Spurgin from the catering company Campine & Cooks Confab and Tommy Gomes from Catalina Offshore Products, standing at the hot grill for a couple of hours, cooking up hundreds of pounds of fish for the Veterans in the Stand Down outdoor kitchen!

Will you be asked back or is there a waiting list?

We were already asked back next year.  In fact, we were asked if we wanted to do two meals. Ha!  Although honored, even Julie gave a quick “no thanks” answer and she never says no to anything. We are all volunteers; most with full time jobs, so preparing and serving the one meal is all we can do at this point in our young organization.

For more information about Just Call Us Volunteers, visit their website at justcallusvolunteers.org.