Paul Lema understands teamwork.
As a Chico State football player in the 1970s, he was a wide receiver on a pair of teams coached by Dick Trimmer back when the Wildcats played in the Far Western Conference.
When the Camp Fire ravaged Paradise and the surrounding communities on November 8, Lema's teamwork and business acumen came in handy as his catering business, Italian Guy Catering, became a lifeline to thousands of evacuees, first responders, and infrastructure personnel.
Lema said he received a call from World Central Kitchen the day the fire broke out, as it looked for a commercial kitchen in which to run its operation. World Central Kitchen is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters. Founded in 2010 by celebrity chef José Andrés, it had spent several weeks in Redding months earlier helping Carr Fire victims and was now looking to set up shop in the Chico area to help the thousands displaced by the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history.
"They needed a commercial kitchen, and a guy named Jason Collins came by, checked out our facilities, and used both our kitchen and warehouse," Lema said of his 15-year-old Bellarmine Court business.
He said World Central Kitchen hit the ground running, using Italian Guy Catering to serve 4,000 to 5,000 meals in the first days of the disaster, ramping up to 8,000 in the weeks following and topping it with a Thanksgiving meal prepared for 10,000.
"It was mass production of food for 18 hours per day," Lema said, adding World Central Kitchen typically serves meals for the first several weeks after a disaster but the scope of the Camp Fire aftermath was something many weren't prepared for.
After World Central Kitchen departed, Italian Guy Catering contracted with the Red Cross and state of California to continue to the work and feeding evacuees in 14 locations.
Paul Lema and members of World Central Kitchen pose in front of
his business, Italian Guy Catering.
"This was like nothing we'd ever done; this scale and style of cooking is totally different compared to how we do our catering," he said. "When we started, I felt like I was dogpaddling with one hand, barely staying afloat."
Lema said he had to retrain his brain to think in a scale he'd never imagined—in terms of ordering supplies, cooking logistics, and staffing.
Teamwork was clearly in order. And he credits a lot of it to his son, Erik, also a Chico State alum, and the hundreds of volunteers.
"I didn't think our kitchen could produce that much food," he said.
And, Lema said, the work was a labor of love. Erik, his other son, Kyle, and numerous relatives were displaced by the fire.
"Erik was displaced, but he was down here working 18 hours a day," Lema said.
For weeks on end.
A retired teacher, Paul Lema began the catering business while teaching—"burning the candle at both ends"—before friends and others convinced him to pursue feeding the masses after retirement.
After the departure of World Central Kitchen, the number of daily meals also declined, but Lema says they were still serving upwards of 1,000 three times a day.
A typical day begins around 5 a.m. and ends around 8 or 9 p.m. with a continuous stream of food preparation, cooking, and planning.
"If we aren't preparing food, we're preparing sauces for the next day," he said.
Paul Lema and his son, Erik,
in front of an American Red Cross
vehicle.
And through it all, Lema managed to avoid putting Italian Guy Catering on hold while handling the load of feeding evacuees.
"At one point, we were feeding 3,500 people and doing six events we were contracted for," he said.
While Lema recognizes business will probably pick up down the road with the increased visibility of Italian Guy Catering, his payoff will always be being able to help out during the crisis, actually employing some of the volunteers who have helped the daily food push, and seeing so many come and give their time—often to strangers.
"It's been great," he said. "It's pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it's been nice to be able to help.
"There's so many stories of people stepping up and how quickly it came together. It's best described as organized chaos," he added.
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