Hot Jambalaya Feeds Holy Cross Students
The impacts of Hurricane Katrina are still being felt by local students, but one Motiva employee is volunteering his time to add a little Cajun flavor to their lives.
Students at Holy Cross School, which is the second oldest all boys Catholic School in the country, are tired of eating the same thing everyday for lunch.
The school was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The storm left more than eight feet of water throughout the school, cafeteria and gym. Currently classes are being held in mobile classrooms (Trailers) in the school parking lots. To make matters worse, when school started, the students didn't have any potable (drinking) water. A tanker truck brought water in for the bathrooms only and a local company sent several truckloads of bottled water for the boys to drink. Once the water issue was resolved, the principal had another issue. What to feed the boys? Each student was told to bring a lunch or they could order a sandwich from a local deli either Ham or Roast Beef ONLY.
But as you could imagine, this got old very quick and the parents started organizing food days for the students. That's when they turned to Motiva's own Charlie "Hoot" Houidobre, Training and Procedures Department, for help. Hoot was asked to cook jambalaya for the Senior class.
Hoot was happy to show off his culinary skills and help out. He says the jambalaya was very successful, and almost 
too successful! "I started that day at 5am cutting the seasoning and meat to cook two 25 pound batches of jambalaya. I was planning on feeding approximately 300 students that day and boy it was close!" shared Hoot. "I only had about one and a half pounds left over!"
Hoot has personal ties to the school as well. His sons attend this school. "I was totally thrilled to do this for these boys and my sons school," explained Hoot. "Since then, I've had several students ask me when am I doing another lunch of jambalaya for them. I tell them as soon as I can raise the donations, I will do it again for them!"
The Motiva Norco Refinery sponsored this lunch by providing all the food and supplies needed for cooking the jambalaya.
As an added bonus for the Holy Cross students, the money that would have normally gone towards lunch was donated to help with senior events. Normally the senior class had a budget to work from, but with all monies used and needed just to open and run the school, these dollars were not available.
Pictured above from left to right are: are Dr. Joe Murray, Principal; Greg Battistella, Athletic Director; Charles DiGange, Headmaster; Charlie Houidobre, Ralph Hymel.
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