Restaurateur To Feed The Needy

Outback Steakhouse restaurant co-founder and part-time Water Mill resident Tim Gannon now lives a very comfortable life. But he knows what it’s like to be hungry.

Back in 1988 when he was 40 years old and he and his partners—Bob Basham, Chris Sullivan and Trudy Cooper—opened the first of the future steak chain restaurants in Tampa, Florida, Mr. Gannon was near penniless.

“I arrived in Tampa with $37 in my pocket and a lot of debt when I joined Outback,” Mr. Gannon explained during an interview at his home last week. “I had just sold a saddle, that I promised to never sell, for $250 for the gas money to get to Tampa.” He bought it back one year later, the polo player and Outback Polo Team owner recalled.

Times and fortunes have changed for the creator of Outback’s signature “Bloomin Onion” dish but he has never forgotten what it’s like to be cash-strapped. As a result, he has started a new venture, a charitable one, to feed the nation’s needy. And last month he kicked off the Kettle Comfort: Cooking for America non-profit organization during a gathering of friends and supporters at his Water Mill home.

The premise of Kettle Comfort is to bring chef-inspired food to the hungry and nutrition-deprived. According to the non-profit’s website, the ultimate goal of the organization is to “bring dignity and hope to American families and challenge the invisible problem that hunger represents.”

Dishes that will be served every day to the needy, starting Thanksgiving Day 2011 in West Palm Beach, Florida (Mr. Gannon also has a home in Palm Beach), will include shrimp etouffe, jambalaya, and red beans and rice—the same dishes that Mr. Gannon and his wife, Christy, served during the kickoff gathering at their home last month.

“I love feeding people,” Mr. Gannon said last Wednesday as smells of roasting chicken emanated from his kitchen. “I know how to feed people. We can feed 5 million people a year with a 10,000-square-foot building for a home base, some kettles, a Bunsen burner and a pot of water. I know the math, the math works.”

The cost is remarkably inexpensive, Mr. Gannon explained. Using his food, facilities, distribution, staff and volunteers, plus his know-how from years in the restaurant business, the cost of a nutritionally balanced meal will be just 42 cents a serving, he said. The restaurateur is not only using his own money for the charity, he is also planning on setting up Kettle Comfort sites wherever there is a need, particularly in crisis areas. He added that Outback Steakhouse, which has restaurants in 28 countries and feeds 120 million people a year, donated 400,000 meals in Manhattan during the aftermath of September 11, fed 300,000 displaced people from Hurricane Katrina and has shipped enough food for 70,000 troops in Afghanistan.

“When you have skill, a plan, and you have everything you need, you can imagine yourself feeding 5 million people,” he said when asked why he has chosen to give back with Kettle Comfort. “What would stop you from doing it?”

Further explaining, he related a story he had heard about giving back. The gist of the anecdote was that once someone reaches the top, they need to help out those still on their journey.

“Don’t forget to send the elevator back down,” he said, smiling.

Mr. Gannon is joined in the charitable endeavor by newscaster Tim Malloy, who broached the idea to Mr. Gannon during the Irish American Ball in Palm Beach earlier this year, and Stacey Dowdle, who is serving as the organization’s executive director. For more information on Kettle Comfort: Cooking for America, visit kettlecomfort.org.