This year’s American Royal BBQ Food Rescue was looking to be the best ever. We actually collected 40% more meat that the year before thanks to more of the big parties contributing leftovers. There was 3,000 pounds of the world’s best BBQ headed for kitchens and feeding stations all around Kansas City. Providing needed protein for those people whose next nutritious meal is never a sure thing. In addition there was 1,200 pounds of sides to make the meals healthy, something most people in need are not always able to accomplish.
All of that food was recalled and destroyed because, in the eyes of the Kansas City Health Department it could not be served to the public. We have scheduled a meeting with the Health Department to discuss future food donations and what we can do to get our program back on track.
Kookers Kare would like to thank all the volunteers, the teams and everyone who attempted to make this happen. We are crushed that the hard work and the sacrifices of both time and money that were made by the BBQ community were literally thrown away. We will make every effort to see this never, ever happens again.
As of this writing we, Kookers Kare, Harvesters, KCBS and numerous competition teams are working on a solution to replace and distribute all or part of what was lost. Stay tuned.