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Roy should be proud of his nephew! Enjoy the write-up:  Barry Johnson

Kindly read and enjoy.   This is my nephew of whom I'm very proud. 

Roy Schoenfeld

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January 31, 2010

Photos: Chives owner prepares meal for Rwandans
By Malavika Jagannathan
mjaganna@greenbaypressgazette.com

SUAMICO — Cooking a pasta meal at his restaurant is one thing, but creating a meal from scratch for 4,000 people in a country where grocery stores aren't quite the norm and electricity scarce was a new challenge for J.R. Schoenfeld.

The chef and owner of Chives Restaurant in Suamico, spent two weeks after Thanksgiving in Rwanda, preparing a feast for people in a village called Kibeho in the southern part of the east African country that's about the size of Maryland.

The experience was the catalyst for a project he's planning to have under way by the end of the year aimed at helping Rwandans start their own bakeries and bake fresh bread.

He was hired by the Legislative Leadership Institute, which undertook this effort as a humanitarian aid project for a master's degree program offered to legislators around the world. Schoenfeld had about 10 days to prepare for the feast.

"A lot of people can cook well, but very few people can do what he did," said Amy Polasky, president of the institute. "We literally brought him to a country where he didn't speak the language, didn't know anyone and within 48 hours, he was already sourcing food and utensils."

Schoenfeld spent the first part of the trip, partially in the Rwandan capital city of Kigali, looking for food products to make his meal of spaghetti and meat sauce, as well as pots and pans to cook the food in.

"They just got a grocery store … and there's not much there, so I bought everything out of them," Schoenfeld said. He then made another trip to Butare, a small city that is home to the National University of Rwanda, to find meat and bread.

The location for the meal was Kibeho, a small village of about 1,500 people, which is "off the grid," Schoenfeld said. With no running water and no electricity, he used charcoal burners in remanufactured oil drums to cook outdoors.

"The people maybe get meat and bread once a year," said Schoenfeld, adding that the meal was a success despite these challenges

Though much of Rwanda subsists on farming — about 85 percent of the population engages in agriculture — it's not in large, cooperative quantities. Inspired by his trip there, Schoenfeld is working with a local priest in Kibeho to build a prototype of a bakery that can train Rwandans to bake nutritional, locally-made bread and start their own bakeries.

"The people themselves have nothing and appreciate everything," Schoenfeld said. "I can't donate a million dollars to build a school, but I can figure out a way to make them a prototype that they can build on."

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20101310685

 

 

 

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