Turkey Chops

Yesterday at 8 AM, myself, Tori, Maggie, and Tyrek along with a crew from Mississippi arrived at a restaurant in the Humboldt Park neighborhood called Turkey Chops. Yes, that's right-a restaurant.  Quentin Love, the owner of Turkey Chops and a number of restaurants in Chicago, was there to greet us.  He asked us if we were ready to work, and I, ostinsibly a leader on this adventure, gave an enthusiastic "yes!"  Quentin, with a rye smile, said, "Good.  I'm going to remember that." I expected to be working hard that day, but little did I know it would be one of the most tiring work days I have had since high school when I worked the early shift at Hardee's.  

Every Monday, Turkey Chops shuts down as a restaurant and serves meals for anybody and everybody in the neighborhood.  I spent a majority of time in the kitchen doing various and sundry tasks including cooking pasta, chopping onions, opening and draining dozens of cans of corn and cans of beans, and washing dishes (if you see my apartment mid-week, you would draw the conclusion that I'm not a dish washing enthusiast).  Quentin was great with the volunteers.  He was patient with us, but when the line was out the door and halfway down the block, he had us working with a sense of urgency.

Outside the kitchen, the volunteers in the morning helped clean and get the welcome station set up.  At around 11:30, I poked my head out of the kitchen door to find an empty dining area.   I asked one of the leaders of the Mississippi group where the heck everyone was.  Much to my surprise, accompianied by the local volunteers, our troops were literally walking down the streets inviting everybody to stop by to pickup a free meal.

During our group reflection last night, we found this town-crier invitation particularly fitting because in one of meetings before the trip, we talked about the parable about the Great Banquet.  A man invited a bunch of people to his house for a bankquet, but every one of them came up with excuses not to come.  Finally, in frustration, he sends his servants into the streets to bring in the poor and downtrodden.

We ended up serving 670 people.  One of the interesting things was that the folks we served knew each other, the Turkey Chop staff, and the local volunteers.  They said hello to each other and asked about each other about their families.  There was a real sense of community that is quite different from what I'm used too.  

For me, it is an amazing to see a man like Quentin who has worked his tail off to earn his success, yet makes it a priority to work even harder to give back.  His actions lead me to believe that the investment he makes that is most important to him is in people.  I hope that he takes time to have rest and recharge his batteries, which is another thing we have talked about this week, but that's for another post.  

We got a group photo at the end of the day, but I have yet to get a hold of it.  As soon as I do, I will defintely post it.

Please check out the website of Quentin's non-profit organization, The Love Foundation, and if you are so inclined pitch in 5 or 10 bucks which will help them continue to put love into action.  

http://www.lovefoundationproject.org

-PJ

P.S.  More on the happenings of today later.  The whole Immanuel crew was together.  The highly structured schedule, which as a chaperone I'm extremely grateful for, is making it tricky to find time to write.  :-)