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Texas pitmaster Kaleb Blain cooks barbecue each week for unhoused people in Waco, Texas, partnering with local businesses to provide necessary resources like clean water and feminine hygiene products
Blain told PEOPLE that forming relationships with those he is serving has turned what was once a side project into a passion, particularly as a way to counteract his brother’s death
Blain hopes to open a brick-and-mortar location to serve affordable barbecue and free meals for those in need daily
A Texas man is giving back to his community.
Kaleb Blain, 36, makes barbecue every Wednesday for people experiencing homelessness in Waco, Texas. He told PEOPLE the work gives him a “sense of purpose” as he forms relationships with those he is helping and finds greater meaning in his own life.
Blain was a 9-1-1 dispatcher before switching to the barbecue industry about four years ago. He started working in restaurants and wanted to set off on his own after being let go from Terry Black’s Barbecue last December.
He decided to start a business with his friend David, and they began making sack lunches to give out to people on the side.
A few weeks into this “side project,” Blain started building friendships with the people he was giving food to.
“We would start to hang out in fellowship with them for a bit,” he said. He started learning directly what unhoused people needed daily, like fresh water, electricity, medical aid.
Blain also learned that there’s a gap each day between when shelters provide meals and laundry in the mornings and a place to stay in the evenings.
Blain’s work feeding those in need turned from a side project into a passion
Credit: blainsbbq/Instagram
“In Texas, these summers get really brutal out here,” he said. “Access to fresh water is going to be very important.”
That’s when Blain started his “boots-on-the-ground” lunch operation with his “little bitty smoker” in his backyard. He cooks for about 30 people each Wednesday, and the number grows as more people hear about it.
He typically makes food that allows him to serve many people at a low cost, like hot dogs, smoked chili dogs and pulled pork. He has also partnered with a local restaurant called Spaghetti Park to provide pizza.
Blain said when he served chili dogs on a particularly brisk April day, instead of the typical fellowship following the satisfying meal, all of the people fell asleep.
“There’s this one lady there, we call her the house mom,” Blain shared. “She’s an older lady, takes care of everybody out there, and I went to go say goodbye to her and all she was able to do was just lift her arm up in the air to grab my hand.”
“She was just passed out,” he said, laughing.
Initially with this project, Blain said, he just wanted to do his part. But developing friendships with the people he was serving affected him.
“To see them go without things that I take for granted every day really impacted me a lot,” he said.
“I think it’s really easy to overlook and just generalize people who are unhoused until you get to know them and you realize they’re exactly us just without homes,” he said.
He shared that it means even more because he lost his younger brother at 22 years old in 2015 to a heroin overdose.
“Him and I were best friends,” he said. “To this day, it’s the greatest loss I’ve ever experienced. And when I go under there, at least every single time, I’m seeing some kid that’s 19 or 20 years old, and they’re in the same situation.”
“It just hits home because that’s somebody else’s sibling that’s down there struggling, or that’s somebody else’s kid that’s down there struggling,” he said.
He said that in a way, his work feels as though he is honoring his brother.
“To me it’s like, how can I counteract this great loss that I had by providing for others?” he said.
“It gives you really a greater sense of purpose and a sense of self, and the way it can just naturally cure depression, anxiety, just serving people who don’t have the same resources as you, it really grounds you,” he added. “It makes you grateful for what you have and excited for what you can provide in the future.”
Blain started a coalition called 86 Hunger because more people wanted to get involved.
He currently partners with Waco Mutual Aid to provide people with products like Plan B, Narcan, feminine hygiene products, wet wipes, clothes and socks.
He hopes to work with local businesses and get his own brick-and-mortar location to provide meals and fresh water “every single day.” He is currently raising money through a GoFundMe to buy a bigger smoker.
Blain said that his organization calls back to how Texas barbecue is a historically communal practice that was originally about transforming “your throwaway cuts” into something to serve your family or community.
Now, he said, at top barbecue spots, a family of four can easily spend $200 on a meal.
“I don’t believe a family should be paying that much for barbecue,” he said, adding that his business is about bringing “high quality food, and serving it to people, the public for a reasonable price and to be able to provide free meals to people who need ’em.”
Read the original article on People
Dining and Cooking