Our Immersion Recovery Center executive chef was invited to The Soup Kitchen in Boynton Beach, FL as a Guest Celebrity Chef on Saturday November 7th 2020. Executive Chef Eric Cone oversees the culinary preparation and execution of all meals for Immersion Recovery Center. Since the center’s inception, Eric displays tremendous pride in managing the professional kitchen and staff at Immersion to meet the dietary needs and cuisine standards of all guests.

We got a chance to speak with Eric after the event and he was able to share his experience with us:

“Volunteering holds a heavy place in my heart. It lets me give back to people outside of the rooms of recovery, for me that’s what consistently makes me a better person. It was nice to be able to this event with other people who are new to recovery as well. The staff at The Soup Kitchen showed me the walk in and I created a menu on the fly with the ingredients they had on hand. We were able to make a hand crafted beef stir fry with sesame seeds and a spicy Asian slaw.”

Alongside Eric was his Sous Chef for Immersion Recovery Center Brian Roosjen.

Here is what Brian had to say about the event:

“I have been on the receiving end of this type of service many times when I lived in California. I was given a lot of food by churches and soup kitchens, and when I moved to Florida I did do some volunteer work but never in a soup kitchen until this past weekend. It was very rewarding. I was happy to be able to provide a service that was once given so freely to me. It goes beyond recovery, and becomes relevant to what is going on in the world right now. I had a lot of fun at the event, when I have fun it makes it easy to put positive energy into what I am doing”

The Soup Kitchen has been serving the community for 37 years. They do not receive any funding from the government and nor do they charge a single penny for any of their services. Since their humble beginnings, they have not remained still. They have responded to the increasing needs of those we serve by providing more support.

The Soup Kitchen is open 365 days a year, serving approximately 800 hot meals per day. They give away over 500 food bags per day, and have served over 3 million hot meals since 1983.

The Soup Kitchen is currently accepting donations and can be reached here:

The Soup Kitchen

8645 W. Boynton Beach Blvd.
Boynton Beach, FL  33472
561-732-7595

Guardian Recovery Network and Immersion Recovery center have both made donations to this non-profit in addition to our participation in the guest chef event.