Operation BBQ Relief is ready to respond
Among the first local volunteers to respond to tornado-ravaged Joplin — along with the police officers and sheriff’s deputies — were the competitive barbecue cooks.</p><p>Two Pleasant Hill competitors — Jeff Stith and Stan Hays — arrived in Joplin soon after the storm.</p><p>They were in the vanguard of an estimated 50 to 75 competitive teams from eight states that descended upon Joplin to provide protein to those who no doubt needed it.</p><p>Over 12 days, more than 175 volunteers prepared and delivered an estimated 120,000 meals.</p><p>“I know it’s amazing, but those are our numbers,” said Stith.</p><p>The need they filled induced Stith and Hays, along with fellow competitor Will Cleaver, to organize a nonprofit barbecue disaster response team. They envision the team, Operation BBQ Relief, deploying to similar emergencies and also participating in charitable events.</p><p>“The competition barbecue family is very tight,” Stith said. “We compete, but if anybody needs anything during competitive events, we will jump in and help each other. That was true in Joplin, too.”</p><p>The effort in Joplin was a lot like a competitive barbecue event, according to Hays.</p><p>“Your emotions are running high and adrenaline kicks in,” he said. “We would get maybe four hours of sleep a night. </p><p>“Actually, four hours of sleep is a good night’s sleep during a barbecue competition.”</p><p>Stith has been involved in competitive barbecue for several years with a team called Big Creek BBQ. Hays joined Stith’s team four years ago but now has his own team, County Line Smokers.</p><p>“We both woke up on that Monday morning with the same idea,” Hays said.</p><p>The tornado had struck Joplin the night before, on May 22.</p><p>Hays, an area Farmers Insurance sales director, arrived in Joplin later that Monday. Several of his 17 years with Farmers were spent in claims — he represented the company in Texas after Hurricane Rita in 2005 — and he knew that the first responders arriving in Joplin would need to be fed.</p><p>“It was important to get set up quickly,” Hays said.</p><p>He found the staging area that Farmers representatives had secured, a shopping center parking lot near the northeast corner of Seventh Street and Range Line Road. That was just a few blocks, he said, from where barricades marked the beginning of the devastation.</p><p>Stith, meanwhile, had contacted the Kansas City Barbecue Society, whose members put him in contact with major donors.</p><p> Sam’s Club, Stith said, donated about 7,000 pounds of pork, as well as 500 to 1,000 pounds of ribs. OK Foods, in Fort Smith, Ark., provided about 50,000 pounds of chicken. (A list of donors is available on the Kansas City Barbecue Society’s website, <a href="http://www.kcbs.us">www.kcbs.us</a>)</p><p>The first smoker was fired up on Tuesday.</p><p>“That first day we probably served about 1,000 meals,” said Hays.</p><p>From the start, Hays, Stith and fellow volunteers worked about 18 hours a day.</p><p>“It was nothing to see Humvees full of National Guard members, coming in around midnight,” said Hays. “We were serving people at 2 a.m. </p><p>“We wanted to make sure those in uniform were taken care of.”</p><p>While many of those receiving meals were first responders and emergency personnel, several local families also got in line, said Stith.</p><p>“One little boy was wearing his Halloween costume, and it was clear that it was all he had left to wear,” Stith said. </p><p>“There were kids who were complaining to their parents that their shoes were two or three sizes too small. These were people who obviously had lost everything.”</p><p>It wasn’t hard to identify some Joplin residents, Hays added.</p><p>“When you see a person whose car doesn’t have a straight piece of metal on it, that is matted with debris and insulation, with plastic where the windows once were, you know that person has gone through a lot,” he said.</p><p>The volunteers distributed their barbecue in a variety of ways. </p><p>Sometimes they went to churches or shelters and took orders from those seeking shelter there. Whenever the pace slowed, they loaded restaurant Styrofoam clamshells with food to distribute later.</p><p>A barbecue disaster response team makes sense, said Stith, an area mortgage loan officer. Most competition cooks already own equipment useful in such situations, such as generators or cookers that don’t need electricity.</p><p>Conversations already have begun with Joplin officials for some of the barbecue teams to return — perhaps over Labor Day — for a barbecue benefit to raise recovery funds.</p><p>Stith, meanwhile, wouldn’t be surprised to see a large number of volunteers.</p><p>“I can’t count the number of times that people — barbecue volunteers — told me ‘We will look at everything different now,’ “ he said.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">More about the relief effort </span></strong><br /> •For more information about Operation BBQ Relief, go to <a href="http://www.operationbbqrelief.org">www.operationbbqrelief.
Kansas City Barbecue Society - News
Stith, meanwhile, had contacted the Kansas City Barbecue Society, whose members put him in contact with major donors. Sam's Club, Stith said, donated about 7000 pounds of pork, as well as 500 to 1000 pounds of ribs. OK Foods, in Fort Smith, Ark.,
There are several sanctioning bodies that track team points and standings, two of the biggest being the Kansas City Barbecue Society and the Memphis Barbecue Network. Right now, Fast Eddie's Fine Swine is in ninth place in the South Carolina Barbecue
Today and Saturday the fair will also be host to the first Queen City Barbecue Cookoff sponsored by Small Business Club of Clarksville. The cookoff, which is a Kansas City Barbecue Society sanctioned event, the proceeds of which will benefit the
Third annual KCBS Smokin' on the Square BBQ Festival, today and Saturday, Mountain View. A Kansas City Barbecue Society-sanctioned event on the courthouse square. Sample different meats and vote for your favorite. www.yourplaceinthemountains.com (888)
Summertime is barbecue time, and this year Mainers have a record four barbecue competitions to look forward to – three of them sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. Chicken will be on the menu at all four
Lake of the Ozarks, summer fun, vacationing in Missouri, Illinois ...
Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. - Fun, the Fourth of July and the Lake of the Ozarks go together like firecrackers, sparklers and Old Glory. With a number of celebratory activities available and a whole host of events scheduled for the three-day holiday weekend, there is no better place than the Lake to join the revolutionary revelry and express your inner patriot.
Golfing, boating, restaurants, nightclubs, festive carnivals and the area's many awe-inspiring fireworks displays are only a few of the entertainment options to enjoy at the Lake during Independence Day weekend, so make plans to secure your lodging early at a local resort, hotel, motel, condominum, bed and breakfast, RV Park or campground. Be sure to check out a list of these outstanding properties on funlake.com or call 1-800-FUN-LAKE (386-5253). Fourth of July weekend festivities get started on July 2 with the city of Eldon's "Independence Day Celebration" at the Eldon Air Park. The celebration packs carnival rides and games, a run/walk race, karaoke and a live musical performance by the Palen/Hill Band (a pop and country act) into one star-spangled Saturday. The fireworks show at twilight is the high point of the evening with a brilliant show synchronized to patriotic music. The carnival merriment continues on the Fourth in Versailles with the city's "Fourth of July Spectacular" at the Versailles Fairgrounds. The fireworks display kicks off at sundown and carnival rides, games and live music are all a part of the all-day Spectacular.
If you're looking to get your fill of "oohs" and "ahhs" on the Fourth, look no further than to two of the Lake's premier resorts. The Lodge of Four Seasons in Lake Ozark and Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach both have magnificent exhibitions that are well known around the Lake for leaving spectators enchanted annually. Both big shows are set to begin around dusk on the Fourth of July. To crank up your family's pyrotechnic enjoyment a few more notches, book a "Fireworks Cruise" from Celebration Cruises or Tropic Island Cruises. Both boat lines offer a Lake cruise on the most comfortable and luxurious yachts in the area and allow passengers a wonderful on-the-water view of a fantastic fireworks show. Reservations for Celebration Cruises can be made two weeks prior to the Fourth at 573-480-3212. Bookings with Tropic Island are being accepted now at 573-348-0083.
Kansas City Barbecue Society - Bookshelf
The Kansas City Barbeque Society Cookbook, 25th Anniversary Edition
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Or as members of the Kansas City Barbecue society like to say, “Barbecue. It's not just for breakfast anymore.” Membership in the KCBS—the world's largest ...Insiders' Guide to Kansas City, 2nd
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Today, Kansas City is home of one of the world's largest barbecue contests, the American Royal, as well as the Kansas City Barbecue Society, with more than ...Daily Article Directory
Kansas City Barbeque Society
Celebrating, teaching, preserving, and promoting barbecue as a culinary technique, sport and art form, with the goal of having barbecue recognized as America's cuisine.
Kansas City Barbecue Society
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Kansas City Barbecue | KANSASCITYBARBECUE.COM
Featuring Kansas City Barbecue Restaurants, Menus and Sauces... Find Your Favorite ... Your Internet Guide To The Finest Barbecue Restaurants On The Planet. ...