Michael “Chef Mike” Airhart wakes at the crack of dawn each day eager to feed the homeless quality meals at various Chicago locations. He might be serving from his Taste for the Homeless food truck, his Taste for the Homeless outdoor Café or at one of his Taste for the Homeless Festivals – but the goal remains the same: provide the homeless quality meals with the respect they deserve.
“The homeless will walk miles and miles to come eat at whatever location I am for that day,” Airhart said. “Everybody deserves fresh food. If you want to be treated with the up-most, then you treat the next person the same way.”
Airhart, 52, has fed Chicago’s homeless through his Taste for the Homeless program, which began about eight years ago. He got the idea after watching a homeless man denied a slice of pizza being thrown away during the annual Taste of Chicago Festival. Denying a hungry person discarded food angered and motivated Airhart. Raised in the Southside projects with absentee parents, he developed cooking skills at an early age.
Chef Mike Airhart
| Submitted
“I was the one who had to be a young chef, coming up with makeshift meals from scratch in my mom’s apartment,” Airhart said. “I would borrow sugar or bread to feed our family and friends who were poor.”
Airhart tried to sell drugs as a youth but usually used the proceeds to feed the poor. When ultimately arrested and facing nine years in jail, Airhart vowed to his god to become a faithful servant if released.
He was and he did.
After the homeless person–pizza experience, Airhart says he received a vision from God that inspired the Taste for the Homeless, a nonprofit with the mission to uplift the homeless to become contributing citizens by providing hot food, clothing, hygiene items and social services. Supported by private donations, community, corporate partnerships and public figures such as Chance the Rapper, Airhart twice a year organizes tour buses to transport homeless citizens throughout the city to a field where food, goods and entertainment are provided for free.
“When they get off the bus, they go through a line of people that are cheering for them and hugging them,” Airhart said. “Then they go on to get everything 100 percent free. It’s set up the same way as the Taste of Chicago, but better.”
Airhart has added a Taste for the Homeless food truck that feeds Chicago's homeless for free. His Taste for the Homeless Café offers a mobile outdoor setting with umbrella tables where the homeless can eat for free and offers a portable shower while they wait for meals. All food is donated and often includes steaks, Cornish hens, hotdogs, even lobster.
“I don’t want just any food,” Airhart said. “You can’t give me food with an expiration date. We want to provide the best.”
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