Barbecue is love, says Hal Boyd, and it brings people together.
So, could it help during the pandemic?
That was the thinking of this Atlanta native, a backyard pitmaster, skilled with a Big Green Egg. His barbecue is legendary among friends and his Druid Hills neighbors.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
With the world hunkered down in the spring of 2020, Boyd initiated a service project – BBQ Love. He and longtime friend Keith Brayton would cook barbecue to feed frontline health care heroes. It would be labor intensive: a three-day cook, plus time spent assembling sandwiches with sauce and pickles.
The first cook went to Grady Memorial Hospital. They delivered 125 pulled pork sandwiches, plus some PBJs for non-meat-eaters, all individually bagged for busy workers to drop inside a pocket and eat whenever time permitted.
Credit: Picasa
Credit: Picasa
“No one was really going out of their house at that point, and I have to admit, it was a little scary, like going to ground zero,” Brayton remembered. “But of course, that was nothing compared to what the frontline workers were doing day in and day out. They really are heroes.”
After that, BBQ Love took off. Neighbors and friends heard about it and volunteered to help. Those with a Big Green Egg offered to grill. Those who liked to bake added desserts to the menu. Others chipped in money or sponsored a cook to hospitals and police and fire departments.
“We sent food wherever we felt like people were working these long hours and doing these crazy things to keep us safe and try to heal people,” Boyd said.
Credit: Picasa
Credit: Picasa
Over the past 16 months, the BBQ Love team sponsored 43 cooks and delivered more than 4,000 pulled pork sandwiches to frontline health care heroes across metro Atlanta.
“It became a way to feel like I was doing something good,” said Boyd, 57, a retired human resources executive. “I’d have these horrific visions of what the day was like in the emergency room at the times when the pandemic was at its peak. The food was 15 minutes to recharge your battery and take a break and go away to wherever this barbecue sandwich takes you.”
Neighbor Diane Prucino said Boyd’s BBQ Love project was a “labor of love on behalf of health care workers.” She could look outside her window and see how hard he worked at his Big Green Egg preparing the meat.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
“It really was a pure and unadulterated act of love for those in our community who were trying to save people’s lives,” Prucino said.
Prucino helped by sponsoring some of the cooks and baking desserts on occasion. She said getting involved was a great way to do something worthwhile instead of feeling helpless in the face of the pandemic.
Boyd participated on every cook but always needed a second person to help with the meat. Each would prepare a 40-pound Heritage Berkshire pork butt, mopping it with a vinegar-style sauce. By the time it’s done, the pulled pork would have more than 30 hours of attention, all before going into a sandwich. More than a half dozen men volunteered to grill.
Doug Brandberg was one of the regular cooks. A friend and former co-worker of Boyd’s, Brandberg said BBQ Love allowed him to use his passion for cooking to give back in a small way.
BBQ Love also provided a way for friends to connect when they couldn’t gather during the pandemic. Brandberg said the circle of friends became “like a little community.” He would pick up the pork at Boyd’s house; they would compare notes while cooking, each at their own homes.
Credit: Picasa
Credit: Picasa
For Thanksgiving week, BBQ Love went all out for night shift workers at Piedmont Hospital.
Boyd and three friends cooked barbecue to deliver meals for three days, including smoked turkey breast sandwiches for Thanksgiving. In all, they prepared 385 sandwiches.
“I was worn out, but it was nice to do something for those folks working at night, who don’t get nearly the attention as those who work in the daytime,” Boyd said.
BBQ Love recently had its last cook, sending pulled pork sandwiches to Piedmont Hospital in June. COVID numbers are going down, and food prices are rising so Boyd decided to end the project. In the beginning, each cook cost $250. It’s now closer to $330 due to higher meat prices.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
The project brought lots of thanks from frontline workers who enjoyed the food. Prucino said those accolades belong to Boyd.
“Hal took something he loves to do – make pork barbecue on his Big Green Egg – and turned it into a community service project of immense proportions. Given all that he accomplished, it’s hard to believe that there was just a single person and his circle of friends at the core.”
— We learned about Hal Boyd and BBQ Love from Noel Mayeske, Boyd’s friend and former neighbor.
HOW BBQ LOVE GOT STARTED
Hal Boyd: “At the beginning of COVID, a friend posted on Facebook about how bad things were at the hospitals where her children were working. It struck me as to how scary that would be and then I just started thinking what will they do about food with everything shutting down?
“I was trying to find a way to help, and thought to myself: Barbecue brings people together. I love the taste of biting into a nice barbecue sandwich.”
His wife Courtney encouraged the project, and assembled hundreds of sandwiches.
Credit: Picasa
Credit: Picasa
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