Blossoms’ owners fed the masses post Irma

BY TERRY SCHMIDA
Months have now gone by since Hurricane Irma struck the Keys, resulting in real hardship for many Keys’ residents.
And though many people would prefer to forget the storm and all the negative aftereffects, tales have also emerged of everyday heroism by people who stepped up to the plate when the situation required it.
Accordingly, Konk Life will be running stories about some of these heroes over the next several weeks.
First up are
Shannan and Jose Delarosa of Blossom’s Cajun Kitchen, in Key West.
It seems like such a simple calculation: People leaving town before a storm should leave perishable items with those who are staying behind. But as anybody who’s ever returned from a storm to a warm refrigerator or freezer full of stinky, inedible food knows, it doesn’t always work out that way.
Evacuations are stressful. For most people, clearing out a fridge is the last thing on their mind as they prepare to depart their home for a week or more.
But Shannan and Jose Delarosa, who own Blossom’s Cajun Kitchen on White Street, were keenly aware from their own personal experience during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, that food was going to be in short supply during the aftermath phase of Hurricane Irma.
“So, we got people to donate food from their fridges, and their businesses’ fridges, if they owned restaurants,” said Jose Delarosa. “We also had a grill and some gas, although that ran out after a while.”
On the day after Irma passed, the couple fed over 300 people. And not just any food, but gumbo, shrimp, and other delicacies that most of their guests probably thought they wouldn’t be seeing much of for the next few weeks.
“There was a line out the door, and down the street,” Shannan Delarosa said. “We were serving from noon to 8 p.m. that day.”
The Delarosas, it turned out, weren’t the only folks in town with the idea of feeding Irma survivors. Across town at Marrero’s Guest Mansion, on Fleming Street, Sally La Cava and her friend Josh Hobson had also taken to the sidewalk to set up a relief station, where they doled out food to those who hadn’t evacuated.
“So, we ended up going over there to help them,” Jose Delarosa said. “Every day for a week we were cooking for Key West all day long. I have to say . . . I really enjoy slinging food on the street.”
Would the Delarosas do it again? They plan to.
“The powers that be want us to leave before a hurricane,” Jose said. “But what we all did to feed people, including first responders and linesman who came down here to help, helped get the island up and running again.”
And so the next time there’s a storm getting ready to strike Key West, expect that the Delarosas, and some new friends they made during the aftermath, at Marrero’s, to be stockpiling food and preparation equipment, in anticipation of the task they have assigned themselves to perform in the wake of the next storm: feeding Key Westers. More about their new friends next week . . .
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