When I heard that my old friend Bud Royer is going to deliver free pie and cash cards to the folks devastated by the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, I kept thinking of that famous quote from the Woodstock music festival. Remember? Wavy Gravy stands onstage and yells: “Good morning! What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000!”
The whole thing is so preposterous, but so generous, that it makes you smile.
Royer, founder and paterfamilias of Royers Cafe and the Pie Haven in the Central Texas village of Round Top, has some experience in the matter of doing good. Last Thanksgiving, he organized a caravan that delivered nearly $30,000 worth of pies and money (in the form of $25 gift cards) to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
He didn’t know it, but he had become the go-to guy for hurricane victims.
He said, “After the tornado hit Moore, customers started calling and saying, ‘What are you going to do to help the people there?’” So he got busy.
His plan is take 500 pies (enough for 4,000 people) and as many gift cards as the public will fund to Moore on July 1. Various family members will go along to help with the distribution. Two anonymous donors have already underwritten just under $10,000 of the cost. He hopes to raise enough additional money to purchase a total of five hundred $25 cash cards, which will be given out at the same time the slices of pie are distributed. Locations are still being decided.
You can follow the project on Facebook. To donate, click here and go to “order pies” (the gift card order box will be in the upper left corner). Bon ap-pie-tite.
