VAN NUYS : Group Cooks Up Quake Aid From Big Rigs

It’s the ultimate in meals on wheels.

Driving semi-trucks loaded with portable cooking gear and volunteers from five states have converged at the Van Nuys Airport to cook meals for earthquake victims and relief workers.

“By the end of this week, we’ll have cooked more than 1 million meals,” said 59-year-old Jerry Bob “JB” Taylor of Stanton, Tex., who heads the Texas delegation for the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief program.

The meals are picked up and delivered to Valley shelters by the American Red Cross, which also provides the food.

The meals, some of which are second helpings, are devoured by earthquake victims, volunteers and others who work to provide earthquake relief.

The organization whipped up nearly 4 million meals in parts of Florida and Louisiana in the two months following Hurricane Andrew.

The Texas delegation is working with volunteers from four other states--Missouri, Mississippi, California and Oklahoma.

They have been cooking outside a hangar since Jan. 19, two days after the earthquake.

The menu--three meals a day--tends to lean toward stews and one-dish meals.

“When we talk about meals, we’re not talking about a meat, a vegetable, a dessert and a salad,” said Taylor.

“We need to feed a lot of people in a little time,” said Taylor, a 24-year veteran of relief efforts.

“I can fix 2,000 meals in 40 minutes,” he said.

To this end, the trucks are equipped with an armament of culinary aids for any disaster.

This includes water purification tanks, 28-gallon cooking pots, food storage containers that keep food hot, and even ham radios to take food orders when phone lines are down.

Like buses that carry rock stars on concert tours, the side of each truck is also inscribed with the locations of the disasters to which they have rushed.

There are 37 disaster locations on the Texas truck alone--from the Paris, Tex., tornado in 1984 to the Mexico City earthquake of 1985.

But each disaster requires a slightly different menu, Taylor said.

In the San Fernando Valley, for example, the majority of people receiving food are Latino, so his crew of volunteers make the food somewhat spicy.

Even so, Taylor said he has to keep an eye on volunteer Milton Schmidt of Irving, Tex.

The 65-year-old Schmidt, who sometimes carries a bottle of Texas hot sauce in a holster, often tries to sneak a little jalapeno and chili peppers into whatever he’s cooking.

“We have to kind of hold him down a little bit during disasters,” Taylor said, “so he doesn’t make it too hot.”