GARDEN GROVE : Seniors to Be Fed Gulf War Chili

Garden Grove senior citizens are going to have a lot of chili to eat, thanks to leftovers from last year’s war in the Persian Gulf.

Twenty pallets of chili, along with fruit cocktail, hot sauce, corn bread mix, vanilla pudding, peaches and other offerings that the Pentagon had secured for use by Gulf War soldiers arrived in Garden Grove this week for use in the Meals and Services program, which serves about 1,000 meals a day, Monday through Friday, at the H. Louis Lake Center and at the homes of people who are shut in by physical or mental ailments.

The concoction that seniors received was designed to serve troops for 20 days, but it will be dispensed in smaller portions to seniors and should last three to four months, according to Loredana Biro, executive director of Garden Grove Senior Meals and Services Inc., which administers the Meals and Services program.

The chili will be stretched in about 8,000 portions, Biro said. The food has a shelf life of five to six years.

“We tasted it . . . and it’s very good quality,” she said.

About a month ago, the senior citizen program got a preview of military cuisine when it received a batch of leftover Desert Storm biscuit mix after applying to the state Department of General Services for surplus Desert Storm food.

Biro said cooks used it in “exotic, innovative recipes” such as fruit tarts and scones to show that military food, which initially was offered to homeless programs, would be put to good use by seniors.

The chili and other staples will permit the local program, which reportedly hasn’t received a federal cost-of-living increase in nine years, to use some of the money it would have used for meals to replace worn-out equipment, Biro said.

The surplus Desert Storm rations will be served for the first time to the seniors on Cinco de Mayo, May 5, a landmark day in Mexican history. The senior center typically serves food with a Latin flavor on that date.

Biro said there will be “a very slight charge” of $4,000 to $6,500 for the government food.