Couple of cooks find food nourishes their love for others

Food is love to Bill and Cally DeWitt.

They love to cook. They love to feed. So they feed to show their love.

For more than a decade, this Spokane couple has provided nourishment to children, seniors, the homeless, the working poor and others who could use a free meal.

As the cooks for two Catholic Charities programs – Cally runs the kitchen at the House of Charity and Bill is the food director at St. Anne’s Children and Family Center – the DeWitts help fulfill the mission of the Inland Northwest’s largest private charity.

“So much of what Catholic Charities does revolve around meals,” said Rob McCann, the nonprofit’s associate director. “Bill and Cally are the centerpiece in the way we feed the poor and serve the people who are most vulnerable and in need.”

While many experienced chefs around Spokane work or volunteer for area soup kitchens, few have shared their culinary careers with their spouses the way this couple has. Cally and Bill – both 52, married for 34 years and the parents of a grown son – worked together for several years at the House of Charity. Now that Bill has moved over to St. Anne’s, Cally helps him out in the afternoons when she’s done serving lunch.

Together, they make enough food to feed hundreds of people each day. Last month, Bill cooked more than 8,600 meals for the kids at St. Anne’s while Cally served up 5,000 at the House of Charity.

“But he has little 6-inch plates,” Cally teased on a recent afternoon as the couple sliced oranges and prepared snacks at the child-care center. “Mine are big trays.”

On a more serious note, she added that each meal at the House of Charity has at least 1,200 calories. “For some people, it’s their only shot at food,” she said. “So if this is your only meal, we give you enough to sustain your body for 24 hours.”

Some diners at the House of Charity, especially the men, eat two or sometimes three meals. The need for free meals at the House of Charity has risen dramatically in the past few years – up by 17 percent since 2000 and an astounding 7 percent since last year.

Everyone is always welcome, Cally said. “We don’t care if they have lots of dollars or none.”

And there’s always enough in her kitchen so that no one leaves hungry, said Cally, whose career as a chef began in 1971 – when cooks at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress all called in sick one day.

Although they’ve always enjoyed cooking, the DeWitts didn’t work side-by-side in a kitchen until about five years ago, when Bill decided to volunteer for the House of Charity.

He became his wife’s apprentice as he learned how to operate all the equipment in an institutional kitchen while acquiring the art of improvisation – a necessity when one has to come up with a nutritious meal using food scraps and donations.

“You can’t do much of a menu,” explained Cally, who has a degree in culinary arts from Spokane Community College.

“You just walk in in the morning and see what you have in the refrigerator.”

When she arrives at the House of Charity at 6:30 a.m., Cally has only a few hours to make lunch for at least 130 people. On a recent morning, she glanced through the walk-in refrigerator and discovered 50 pounds of scrap codfish donated by Dick’s Hamburgers, fresh broccoli from Pieroni’s, a North Side produce company, gallons of orange juice, some salad and bread. So, with help from volunteers, Cally and her staff of two whipped up vats of fish chowder just in time for lunch at 11 a.m.

“Sometimes I make it up as I go along,” said Cally, who has all her recipes memorized so that she no longer uses a cookbook.

In fact, it’s meals like “cowboy hash” – made from peppers, sausage and onions – and other last-minute concoctions that become the diners’ favorites.

“What’s for lunch?” the regulars usually ask.

Cally responds with a smile: “Chef’s surprise.”

Bill, who has degrees in metallurgy and biology and spent 20 years in the electronics industry, learned a lot of kitchen skills from his wife and enjoyed the atmosphere at the House of Charity, he said. But when the new St. Anne’s opened a few blocks away from House of Charity last fall, “we begged him to come over,” McCann said.

After cooking in a kitchen with an annual budget of only $1,000 (since most of the food is donated), Bill DeWitt had to adjust to his new setting.

Unlike Cally, who has a lot more leeway in the kitchen, Bill now has to plan his meals a month in advance and – because St. Anne’s is a day care – do everything according to a thick book full of USDA and state regulations. He also has three meals to prepare – breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch at 11 a.m., followed by a snack at 2:15. He doesn’t receive any donations and has a food budget of about $4,000 a month.

“It’s a different kind of cooking,” Bill said. “She gets to do what she wants, but I have a lot more inventory control.”

Bill’s homemade applesauce, macaroni and cheese, and other specialties, feed about 160 kids – many who come from low-income families but receive state subsidies that help them pay for child care at St. Anne’s.

Although Bill no longer has time to volunteer at the House of Charity, the couple still found a way to work together. Now, after teaching her husband the tools of the trade, Cally volunteers a few hours at St. Anne’s by helping to prepare the snacks and deliver the food to each classroom.

“These are two people whose passion has matched their talents perfectly,” McCann said.

“Cally is serving the homeless and Bill’s serving kids, our most precious commodity. They’re using their skills to serve those who need the most help.”