Los Angeles Catholic Worker Hippie Kitchen

The Los Angeles Catholic Worker is where I got my start in the CW world. I spent 7 years there and so it’s the place I’m most familiar with and a visit there is like a visit home.

There’s so much to go into around the LACW that I’m breaking my normal post in two. One for the Hennacy House and the other for the Hippie Kitchen as it is commonly and affectionately referred to by the neighbors of Skid Row.

We’ll start at the Hippie Kitchen. Officially “The Los Angeles Catholic Worker Hospitality Kitchen” or something like that, no one refers to the place by what was once its “real” name. When the LACW first came about in 1970 all the men wore their hair long and everyone generally looked the part of the former hippies they were. Combine that with the CW’s emphasis on peace and “the only solution is love” and it makes sense that the nickname stuck.

The Hippie Kitchen is perhaps the largest CW feeding project there is. Every day hundreds of meals are served. Beans and rice cooked in 4 or more 15 gallon pots with salad and buttered bread has been the everyday meal for decades. It’s located in the Skid Row neighborhood of the city. Just east of downtown, Skid Row has long been a place for poor and itinerant folks. For decades now that has meant a population of thousands of folks living on the streets of the area only a few dozens of blocks big.

I stopped living at the LACW at the end of 2019 and 2020 changed quite a bit about serving from what I knew before covid. The essence of it all is still the same; lots of chopping of veggies, plenty of dishes to be washed, fast friendly service but food is served in to go containers to facilitate quickness in the line for folks who are still nervous about being too close to other people for extended periods of time.

The day begins with the cook starting the beans at 5:30 or so in the morning. The Hippie Kitchen cooks all the beans of the rainbow. Pinto, red, black, white, peruvian, lentils, split peas, black eyed peas, and limas all are a part of the regular rotation. They’re cooked with lots of garlic, onion, carrots, and celery and then seasoned with salt and pepper and whatever other spices the cook of the day might feel like preparing.

At about 6:45 the rest of the Catholic Worker crew shows up with supplies from the house and once everything is put away immediately starts chopping vegetables for the salad. Cases of lettuce, shredded carrots, spinach, and cabbage all go into the beautiful mix of greens that will be dressed with the special mayo-based Hippie Kitchen salad dressing right before being plated for serving.

Other volunteers start showing up around 7:15 or 7:30 and start plugging in on the veggie chopping or buttering bread (3 laundry baskets full each day!).

When it gets a little closer to 9:30 (the official serving time) the whole crew circles up for prayer and then begins making up the to-go containers around one large table set up. A ladle of beans is passed to the salad scooper who hands off the tray to the bread person who slides full trays over to the spork/container closer.

Full to go containers are stacked on large baking sheets and then stationed up near the front door where they will be distributed with hot sauce and bananas.

Folks are welcome to sit and eat their food in “the garden”, the Hippie Kitchen’s outdoor dining area, or take it to go. It's a nice space with plants and fountains that makes for a big contrast to the hot and often hard streets of Skid Row.

Catherine, who has been with the LACW for more than 50 years at this point, offers folks tea (very hot and very sweet)  as they make their way to their seats.

The Hippie Kitchen also offers a space where folks can get hygiene items and over the counter medicine as well as a place to get their mail delivered.

At noon the serving officially stops (though if there’s food left they’ll give it to any late comer who stops by) and the clean up begins. Everything has be put back in order so that the next serving day its all ready to go when the cook gets there at 5:30. Sweeping, mopping, dishes, stove cleaning, serving cart washing, all of it! 

At 12:15 they also do a blanket and sock distribution and most interestingly in an attempt to curb police harassment,  hand out shopping carts to folks who live on the street. 

At the end of the day, the most dedicated of volunteers join the Catholic Worker folks to debrief the day, and when I was there take a group photo.