Working as a chef has always been his passion, but after COVID-19, one Flanders man digs deep to discover the secret sauce to his heart and soul.
Bobby Varua, 45, has organized three food drives in the Clover Hill community where he lives since the pandemic has impacted the township. His first run was about a month ago; second one was a week later; and this past week, on Wednesday, April 22, was the third collection.
Who would have thought that Varua’s food drive would be the driving force for his front yard garden and possible plans to open a community kitchen down the road?
As a resident in the Clover Hill development for the past 8 years, Varua’s profession as a chef has kept him away from his community, and unaware of its struggles.
It was right after St. Patrick’s Day when Varua realized “I had some food that I wanted to donate,” such as Gatorade, paper towels and canned foods. So he reached out to others through the Clover Hill Community Facebook page to see if anyone was in need of food. Someone suggested that he donate his items to the Mt. Olive Food Pantry.
“I didn’t even know we had a pantry,” says Varua, who decided to go there with his wife Jennifer to deliver his items. “The parking lot was full for people who were shopping there,” some who he surprisingly recognized.
“It was really disheartening,” says Varua. “I remember driving home and I just said ‘wow!’ It just kind of hit my heart.”
The notion that so many people do not have the basics in life, with food being one of those essentials, truly hit home for Varua.
“I’m a chef by trade,” explains Varua, adding that he was “ashamed” that he didn’t even know Mt. Olive had a pantry; and “I was taken back” that “our community has to go to this pantry.
“No one has to go through that,” says Varua. “The fact that I’m a chef; necessities is food and water. What’s really important is to make sure we are putting food on the table. It hits home without a doubt.”
Varua was also surprised how empty the pantry was when he visited that first time.
“It’s our pleasure to serve others,” says Jennifer Varua, who worked in hospitality as the director of sales at the new MC Hotel in Montclair before it closed from COVID-19. “It is the true sense of humanity. Our community has been so generous and amazing. We are so proud to be part of this township and our community.”
Coping While Unemployed
Both Varua and his wife have lost their jobs as a result of COVID 19, which can be quite troublesome as they have three kids to provide for: Sofia, 13 a seventh grader at Mt. Olive Middle School; 10-year old Grace, a fourth grader at Mountain View Elementary School; and Owen, 7, a second grader at Mountain View.
Varua worked as an executive chef at Americana Kitchen and Bar in East Windsor up until the week after St. Patty’s Day. Prior to that he worked as an executive chef at Logan Inn Landmark in New Hope, Pa. from 2016-2019; at the Blue Morel in the Weston Governor Morris Hotel in Morristown from 2014-2016; Rod’s Steakhouse at the Madison Hotel in Morristown from 2012-2014.
“It hasn’t been easy,” says Varua, who says he “has a nest egg” to provide for his family. “We don’t have millions, but we pray that we can get through this. We do everything to love thy neighbor first.
“We talk about it every morning,” says Varua. “It’s constantly in our faces. It’s hard to conceptualize there’s many people out there suffering from this.
“We’re all in the same storm but we’re all on separate boats,” explains Varua. “Everyone’s experiencing their own stories, which is pretty overwhelming.
Some are on the front lines risking their own lives; others are asked to stay home, feeling helpless.” One is his friend in Covid, Queens, who had to leave with her husband in order to seek work while leaving their children with another relative.
“We talk about that in the morning and we pray,” says Varua. “We pray as hard as we can. If we have faith, we can do wonderful things.”
Others, like himself, want to do more.
Whether a person is a chef, a doctor, a teacher, a police officer, “your inner spirit is being tested,” says Varua, “whether you have faith in you, government in you, your community in you. I have faith in my community, in Mt. Olive. We are a very small community; if we move in faith and love and compassion,” one can make a difference.
Does not matter how small the gesture is, he says. It “can be as small as a mustard seed.”
Explains Varua: “We are the mustard seed. We are one small community; we are one small project. Start collecting food, start filling in the pantries. I can’t feed people in the middle of Utah, but to help Mt. Olive, just a small act. Hopefully, the word gets around and people get fed.”
Varua adds the “second commandment is to love my neighbor; to look outside the door.” He says right now his “priority is to look across the street and make sure that person is taken care of.”
Tide Has Turned
With COVID-19 as the storm and everyone left to survive in their own boat, as he explains, the tide has turned for Varua who sees his community in need and has been driven to help.
As a “chef for 27 years,” Varua admits that “sometimes maybe we haven’t done the right thing.”
His goal has been “trying to be the best chef, the top chef,” the one on the front cover of magazines. His kids would say ‘look dad we could google you.’”
He has been living his life with “blindfolds on,” he says. He was more concerned about cooking, accolades, publicity, fame, money and security.
Since the virus has taken over, Varua says his perspective has changed.
COVID-19, “it’s taught me ‘you should find another driving force in the pit of our stomachs,’” says Varua.
“I’m looking at people who can’t even put the bare essentials on the table,” says Varua. That strikes a nerve for Varua since he knows how much he can help others when it comes to his skill.
“I can take chicken soup and make it a thousand ways,” says Varua. As chef and a father, he says he knows how much food it takes to feed a family three times a day, seven days a week..
“It’s a lot of food,” says Varua, adding that there are “135 families from Mt. Olive who shop at the Mt. Olive Food Pantry. It wretches my heart that people have to go through with this."
Living here for eight years, Varua says he took this community for granted, but now realizes “We’re just one big family here.”
He has made it his priority to now take care of his neighbors by helping to provide food and water.
“We can find a vaccine tomorrow but if families don’t have food and water, bare essentials, food, water and shelter…now is our time to do that, to make sure they have something on their table.”
Food Collections Begin
To help fill the food pantry, Varua posted a message on the Clover Hill Community Facebook Page announcing his first collection in March.
“If you could leave one or two cans,” Varua posted, that would make a difference knowing there are about “500 homes in our community. I have a trailer I attach to my truck. It was full to the brim. Food was toppling over the truck.”
Varua says he collected about 600 pieces of food items and essentials for the Mt. Olive Food Pantry during the first drive. Water, Gatorade, cans of food, frozen food.
“I would drive around,” hitting about 65 homes in the first run. He put his address on the community page so many people dropped off their items on his front porch or placed it right into the trailer of his truck.
For the “first one, people were so excited,” he says. “It was incredible.”
Realizing the difference he can make, Varua organized his second food collection a week later, collecting about half of the amount, he says, which was “still incredible.”
The third drive was just last Wednesday, April 23. He tries to pick nice, sunny days for the collection.
“Incredible turnout again,” he says.
For each collection, Varua and his wife would drive around, picking up food at mailboxes.
“People started talking to their neighbors everywhere I was driving,” says Varua. “It was such a beautiful thing. This community has been overwhelmingly gracious with their donations. Just driving down the street, they leave something on their mailbox.”
It takes about two hours to collect the food, says Varua, adding that he and his wife collect between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. He gets in the truck with his wife at 2, flying a big American flag at the rear of his truck.
“It’s just been incredible; it’s been so nice,” he says. “They’ve come out of their cars,” to drop the food in the trailer.
The trailer is also left out between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., for those who want to drop items off.
Varua has been working weekly with Susan Morse, the coordinator at the Mt. Olive Food Pantry, to gage the needs of the pantry and schedule deliveries.
“We come in with a trailer; it’s not like we are dropping off a bag of food,” says Varua. We back the trailer up, open the door and flood the pantry” with food and other essential items.
Another woman, Rose, also helps unload, making a team of four.
With all of its freezers and refrigerators that were donated, the pantry is accepting hams, turkeys, chicken and burgers, as well as canned food items. It even has a section for pets, says Varua, with a selection of dog and cat food.
“I’ve never been there before,” says Varua, about the food pantry. “It’s in Budd Lake at a church. The parking lot is full for people to shop.” He “looked inside and they didn’t have a lot. As a professional chef, I know they need a lot of food.”
Virus Stirs New Path For Chef
“I want to continue this,” says Varua, who admits to finding an “unbelievable compassion in our neighbors and humanity.”
He has found a “deeper appreciation” of his community and his skill. Now is the time to “find our skill sets in this community,” whether that is making masks, donating food, helping in hospitals.
“It’s our responsibility to find it no matter what you do,” says Varua. “God has given us each a gift; he’s given us an opportunity to find it.”
He mentions the disc jockey/music lover at the end of his block who has been playing music for his neighbors.
“It was beautiful,” says Varua, adding that is where the silver lining is and he “never opened our eyes to see it. We are being encapsulated by beauty right now; to love thy neighbors.
“That’s what we do; that’s why we are here,” says Varua. If I can do something for my community, I will. It’s not easy. My wife and I, we both lost our jobs. We pray every single day that God will provide. I wake up every morning and I count my blessings.”
For Varua, that means collecting food, growing a garden, baking bread and possibly opening a community kitchen.
“I’m getting farming tips from my neighbors,” chuckles Varua. “I want to grow vegetables,” such as potatoes, carrots, peppers, squash, green beans and lettuce.
“I ripped up my front yard,” on Renault Drive. “My front yard is going to look like a garden.” Since there is no sunlight in the backyard, Varua is tearing up his front yard for his vegetable garden and plans to then donate his vegetables to anyone in need.
“I’m baking bread,” says Varua, adding that he has prepared a variety of bread recipes for the past 27 years. He is making “wheat sandwich rolls” and put a note on the Facebook Community Page offering some bread.