Food truck brings nutritious meals to the needy

The blond man was always well-dressed and well-groomed, and he’d sit before a laptop in the corner of the coffee shop. But something, Bill Bracken remembered, was out of place. The man always had a glass of water, never a cup of coffee.

Over the course of weeks, Bracken noticed changes in the stranger. His posture faltered as he hunched over his laptop. His suit wasn’t ironed, and he was in need of a shave and haircut.

Some time later, Bracken found the man at a local Ralphs. He was asleep on a bench, his shopping cart next to him. A store manager, who came out of the supermarket to awaken him, spoke to Bracken and shared the man’s story.

His name was Randy, and when Bracken began to first notice him, he had just lost his job and was using Starbucks’ free Wi-Fi service to conduct a job search.

When Randy lost his car, he moved his possessions into a shopping cart and was too proud to accept handouts.

Since then, Bracken, a Fountain Valley resident, hasn’t encountered Randy again. But the image of a man who once looked proud and successful withering down to looking beaten and hopeless remained on his mind.

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‘A kitchen on wheels’

Bracken’s quest to deliver nutritious meals to Orange County’s needy stems back more than five years ago, when his encounter with the homeless man served as inspiration for Bracken’s Kitchen.

The nonprofit is driven to provide the homeless and working poor a healthy plate of protein and vegetables — served from his food truck.

“Meet Betsy,” Bracken said as he tapped the hood of a bright red-painted food truck parked in a Fountain Valley plaza. “She’s a kitchen on wheels.”

Betsy, a 27-year-old Chevrolet truck is equipped with a stove, oven, sink and refrigerator.

Bracken, 51, who has already reached out to various nonprofits such as Illumination Foundation, prepares meals at an independent prep kitchen and keeps them warm in the truck’s ovens. He drives the food truck to venues such as shelters or churches, where he serves the complimentary dinners.

“We’re excited that we have Bracken’s Kitchen as a food resource for homeless,” said Sheryl Henrickson, director of development at Illumination Foundation, whose Irvine headquarters sometimes plays host to Betsy. “He’s gracious enough to serve our families.”

Henrickson said on March 23 Bracken fed 60 of the foundation’s clients after one of the organization’s weekly resource meetings. The menu had roasted chicken, rice with cilantro, vegetables, a Caesar salad and warm cookies.

The Orange County Rescue Mission Village of Hope counts on him every Wednesday night, when Bracken cooks dinner for homeless men, women and children in transitional housing.

The food, Bracken said, comes from vendors like Newport Meat Company, which donates chicken. He also shops for groceries with the monetary donations the kitchen receives.

“We want to get out on the streets and bring the food to them,” Bracken said.

Many people in Orange County, Bracken said, are too often confronted with choices between paying for food and paying for other essentials.

According to Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County there are more than 400,000 people in Orange County who need help to feed themselves and their families. One in five children is at risk of hunger each month, and 15.2% of seniors experience food insecurity.

Betsy, he said, is part of the growing popularity of food trucks that helps enable him to bring food to those in need. The brakes, he said, failed once but have been fixed. The gas gauge is broken, and the radio is shot. Bracken hopes that, with donations, he will be able to install a new music system in the truck to make the atmosphere more inviting and fun.

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In the jobless’ shoes

His mission now, Bracken said, is to serve those who are forced to choose between food and other necessities on a daily basis.

A year after learning Randy’s story, Bracken found himself thrust into the lines of unemployment at the age of 48. Since he had a severance package and had saved over the years, Bracken had options, but he suddenly became aware of what it felt like to be in Randy’s situation.

“It all caused me to look deeply into myself and see who I was,” Bracken said. “I was looking at how I could feed people.”

Bracken, who was raised in Wathena, Kansas, with a population of 1,200, won a scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. After his graduation, he worked in the kitchen at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dallas and then moved to California with the company to its Newport Beach property, now the Island Hotel, where he worked as executive sous chef.

A few years later, he joined The Peninsula Beverly Hills as executive chef, earning the AAA Five Diamond Award for 12 consecutive years. He returned to the Island Hotel, where he became executive chef and was then promoted to oversee the hotel’s food and beverage division.

During his culinary career, he’s cooked for George H. W. Bush, heads of state, sports and television stars and Hollywood’s elite.

After he lost his job at the hotel restaurant in 2011, Bracken helped open DivBar Smokehouse BBQ in Newport Beach and the Ensaymada Project, an online Filipino pastry store.

While working on those projects, Bracken was in the process of obtaining a tax-exempt nonprofit status for Bracken’s Kitchen. Before he had Betsy, Bracken served food at venue kitchens while raising donations to fund a truck.

A year later, Bracken’s former sous chef at the Peninsula Beverly Hills and partner in the Ensaymada Project introduced him to Bruce Hecker of Bruce’s Gourmet Catering in Panorama City. Upon learning the concept about Bracken’s Kitchen, Hecker donated a truck to Bracken.

Bracken’s next goal, he said, is to work alongside more nonprofits in the community.

The mission of feeding others, he said, is his passion.

“The true test of a man’s character is how he treats those who can do nothing for him,” Bracken said. “We want to treat people with respect and dignity when they come here to eat.”

To learn more, visit brackenskitchen.com