Soup to go for those in need

Photo: Facebook - Beau Michael Hocevar

One Kelowna man’s giving spirit showed up a little early this Thanksgiving weekend, despite having just lost his job.

Beau Hocevar was let go from his job as a chef last week. As he was going through his fridge Thursday night looking over his leftovers, he had an idea that maybe he could do something to help others with the free time he now had.

“I had half a chicken left over, and it’s getting cold, and somebody could be hungry for it,” Hocevar said. “I had some pasta, I could make a broth, I could do all that fun stuff.”

So Hocevar took his idea and ran with it. He went to the grocery store and grabbed a few more chickens, some vegetables and noodles.

“When it was all said and done we mapped it out that we could feed 300 to 500 people a nice full bowl of soup,” he said.

Hocevar made 16 gallons of chicken noodle soup from scratch on his own small four-burner stovetop.

He has always been passionate about food and said he became a chef because he loves feeding people.

He took to the streets of downtown Kelowna with his girlfriend Friday night and began handing out soup to anyone who wanted some.

“It gave a positive outlook without having politics or religion or anything,” he said.

In the three hours he spent on the town, he managed to give out approximately five gallons of his “Thanksgiving in a pot.”

He now plans to freeze the rest of the soup, take it down to Vancouver next weekend, and hand it out to those in need there.

“It’s a good way to show that you may not have a job, you may not have anything, but you can still help provide for everyone else who can’t.”

One encounter that stands out in his mind from Friday night is a homeless man who refused Hocevar’s soup, claiming he had enough food at the moment and didn’t want to take a bowl that could go to someone who needed it more.

“I decided I could give him some money at least,” Hocevar said. “So I had about 10 bucks in change in the car, and I ran it back to him and he just opened his arms and gave me a big hug … it was just a great way to make someone’s day extra special.”

Despite losing his job as a chef, he said Friday’s excursion on the town reminded him why he loves to cook.

“Something kind of relighted, like relighted my passion for food just that little bit more,” he said.