The Red White and Blue Stew Crew, based out of Hanover County, Virginia, has been cooking Brunswick Stew and competing in various Stew competitions for about seven years. During this period they have received 14 awards, with the most recent a 2nd Place Ribbon from the 2009 State Fair of Virginia's Brunswick Stew Competition.
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The competitions are fun, and we appreciate being recognized by the judges for our Stew, but the real reward is raising funds for the local Children's hospitals", according the Randy Bush, the Crew's "Stewmaster". All of the proceeds from Stew sales during the competitions are directed to the Log-A-Load for Kids Program ... part of the Children's Miracle Network (CMN).
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Over the course of a year's competitions, we have upwards of a dozen or more people who donate their time to the lengthy process of preparing and distributing Brunswick Stew", according to Bush. "
It is always gratifying to the volunteers knowing their efforts are directed toward helping kids."
In addition, the Crew always welcomes other partners to support their activities. The most recent is Farmer's Foods, which provides discounts for the Stew's ingredients. "
We appreciate Farmer's Foods' help," Bush states, "
their support helps maximize what we can do for the kids."
But above all, the Crew appreciates the support from folks who purchase the Stew. "
We realize during a competition, the public can select any Stew they wish ... often from 20 or more competitors ... and we are gratified that our many supporters have allowed us to contribute thousands of dollars over the years to CMN."
The Crew, and their charitable work, was recently highlighted in the nationally released book "America Eats!" authored by noted food writer Pat Willard. Ms. Willard wrote about our Crew’s fund raising activities and operating philosophy in her chapter "The Fund Raising Feast", which detailed the charitable aspects of American Cuisine. The Crew also does limited "special projects" outside of competitions, but still for charitable purposes.
Last Thurs, we traveled to our Edenton, NC location for their FTFTFTH (Feed The Folks That Feed The Hungry) food drive, trading chicken wings smothered in John Boy & Billy Grillin' Sauce, with the donations going to the Edenton Chowan Food Pantry. We whipped up 600 more pounds along with some cash donations for the community. That put us at about 5,800 pounds donated through 8 store events, not bad being only 2 hour events. We're headed to Highland Springs, VA this Thurs, 17th, between 3 & 6pm for our last store event of 2009, this one again benefiting the Central Va Food Bank.
