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Stan Hays - Operation BBQ Relief - Afterhours Encore
10th March 2026 • BBQ Nation • JT and LeeAnn Whippen
00:00:00 00:23:10

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This podcast episode delves into the intricacies of operating a nonprofit organization, particularly in the context of disaster relief. We elucidate the misconceptions that often surround charitable entities, notably the expectation that they should function devoid of financial prudence. The discussion reveals our commitment to supporting local businesses during crises, highlighting the importance of sustaining community ties while fulfilling our mission. Additionally, we explore the necessity of maintaining a viable financial structure within nonprofit operations to ensure ongoing assistance to those in need. Ultimately, we call upon listeners to engage with organizations that resonate with their values, emphasizing the collective effort required to effectuate meaningful change in society.

Links referenced in this episode:

  1. OBR.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

  1. Painted Hills Natural Beef
  2. OBR


This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

Transcripts

Speaker A:

Welcome to Barbecue Nation with JT and Leanne after hours, the conversation that continued after the show was done.

Speaker B:

Hey, everybody, it's jt and this is a special version of Barbecue Nation.

Speaker B:

It is brought to you in part by Painted Hills Natural Beef.

Speaker B:

Beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.

Speaker B:

That's Painted Hills Natural Beef.

Speaker B:

Hey, everybody, welcome back to Barbecue Nation.

Speaker B:

This is the after hours portion that you can only hear online.

Speaker B:

And now we've been, I will tell you this, we've been working very hard the last few weeks.

Speaker B:

We had, Stan, we had this whole library full of videos of the shows and don't ask me why, other than I've been exceedingly busy last couple years producing not just these shows, but other things.

Speaker B:

So we finally started to push them out there.

Speaker B:

We, we don't have that many out there, maybe 20 or so now when you figure we've got couple hundred of them and also for my golf show.

Speaker B:

But we'll, we'll push this show out out front for you here.

Speaker A:

So

Speaker B:

anybody ever give you any negative.

Speaker B:

I don't, I don't like to be negative, but anybody ever give you a hard time about what you're doing?

Speaker A:

Yeah, you know, you get a little bit of a hard time when you, when you continue to ask, you know, people sometimes, you know, man, all you do is continue to ask for donations or ask for this.

Speaker A:

What, you know, why do you need this?

Speaker A:

Or, you know, so you have those negative people that see one post or see a post that's promoted that keeps showing up in front of them, but they don't go look at any of your other posts to tell you tell the whole story.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker A:

And then you have people that, you know, I saw one the other day and he's like, you know, pretty negative about the organization.

Speaker A:

We were out working in, in the panhandle of Texas just recently.

Speaker A:

And, and we chose to, instead of taking, you know, the time to get our equipment across out there, to get our supply chain in and everything, we decided to take the money and prop up some local businesses.

Speaker A:

Some, some barbecue, you know, barbecue business in Amarillo that were friends of ours and, and some food trucks that were out and going to these communities to get the food out there.

Speaker B:

Right, right.

Speaker A:

And we thought, you know, I'd rather, I'd rather do that than spend the money to get my equipment moved out there.

Speaker A:

And by the time I get my equipment moved out there, you know, it's probably on the downhill slide because it's going to take a couple of days and so we were telling our story out there and, you know, inevitably you get somebody, they're like, yeah, this has just become a business to them.

Speaker A:

It's no longer a charity.

Speaker A:

And I'm like, well, first of all, you know, one thing is, is the IRS expects me to run this charity as a business.

Speaker A:

You know, you're right, it is, it is a business.

Speaker A:

And.

Speaker A:

But we're a charity, you know, and they expect us to run it that way.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker A:

They expect me to pay people commensurate to what they would be paid in the normal, you know, in a for profit business.

Speaker A:

So, you know, I think there's still a lot of people out there that think, you know, you, if you work for a nonprofit, you got to be poor, you know, you got to pay them below what, what a living wage is.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker A:

And they should be poor.

Speaker A:

And, and that's not really what it is.

Speaker A:

I mean, you know, I think that people just don't understand that and just have this conception.

Speaker A:

I had, I had a guy told me that at the end of the year, you should have no money in your bank account.

Speaker A:

You should start fresh every year.

Speaker B:

I'm like, what, what that makes it?

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

So if something happens on January 1st, I have no money to go do it.

Speaker A:

I mean, that, that, that just doesn't even seem, you know, well, that's what nonprofits do.

Speaker A:

And I'm like, no, that's not what nonprofits do.

Speaker A:

That's not what it means to be a nonprofit.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker A:

So I think that there's just a lot of misconceptions and then, you know, there's a lot of old thinking out there.

Speaker B:

True, true.

Speaker A:

You know, around, well, how much of your money goes to what?

Speaker A:

Well, you know, that's, that's a difficult situation when you're a disaster relief organization and you've got employees and you've got people staged around the country and equipment staged around the country and you have what is a good year.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Not a good year does, you know, means that there is not major disasters that you're responding to.

Speaker A:

Now in our world, you know, we're not making revenue.

Speaker A:

When we're not active in disasters, people don't donate to us.

Speaker A:

It's a very emotional give most of the time.

Speaker B:

Sure.

Speaker A:

You know, is when you're in the middle of it, but when you're not in the middle of it, you know, and that's where the sustainability of the camp comes in.

Speaker A:

Because I can show foundations, I can show companies.

Speaker A:

Here's what we're going to do on on a weekly monthly basis.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

And it adds a revenue stream that we don't have today.

Speaker B:

Well, it's kind of the old, excuse me, the old out of sight, out of mind deal.

Speaker B:

And I work with.

Speaker B:

And then this isn't about me, but I work with a number of nonprofits for scholarships and kids and veterans.

Speaker A:

Sure.

Speaker B:

And it's, you know, around Veterans Day they're like, rah, rah, sis boomba.

Speaker A:

Excuse me.

Speaker A:

Gosh.

Speaker B:

But on the 15th of May, they don't think about it very much.

Speaker B:

You know what I mean?

Speaker B:

When, when you're doing that.

Speaker B:

And I think about it all the time instead of just doing these shows.

Speaker B:

That's the other part of my life that I do and produce and help these people.

Speaker B:

And so I know exactly what you're saying when they.

Speaker B:

Well, you've always coming to us with your hand out, so to speak, to help.

Speaker B:

These people need help all the time.

Speaker B:

They're different people all the time that need help.

Speaker B:

It's not just the family across the railroad tracks like when we were growing up.

Speaker B:

Excuse me for a second.

Speaker B:

Gosh, I'm sorry.

Speaker B:

Anyway, but I've been on the end of that.

Speaker B:

Some of those todry comments, if you will, about what, you know, what are you doing here?

Speaker B:

What are you trying to accomplish?

Speaker B:

And it's like if I have to explain it in that depth to you, they probably don't get it, you know.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

Well, and the fact is, is that they see it from time to time.

Speaker A:

They see, they see these posts because we boost them or we, you know, we promote that post.

Speaker A:

So it's seen more on their social media, but they don't see the ones when we're asking them to register as a volunteer.

Speaker A:

Give your time, you know, give, you know, there's more ways to give than just with money.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker A:

You know.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker A:

And you know, we're trying to, we try to educate our people that hey, you know, we want, you know, money is great, but your time can be even worth more.

Speaker A:

More.

Speaker A:

No.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker A:

Like, you know, again, we're this year at a, we're going to do something really cool up in the, up there.

Speaker A:

We're going to do two days because it's Father's Day weekend.

Speaker A:

We're going to do two days of classes.

Speaker B:

Oh, good.

Speaker A:

We're going to do.

Speaker A:

The first day is going to be a women's class and it's for female first responders and the significant other of female, you know, first respond or of a first responder.

Speaker A:

And that way we'll have a Female class on Saturday.

Speaker A:

And one of the things that we're going to do is we're going to teach them a whole entire dish on the grill that they can go home and if they want to, the next day they can recreate that dish for Father's Day.

Speaker B:

There you go.

Speaker A:

So they're going to walk away with the meat and the things needed to be able to recreate that dish the next day,

Speaker B:

my wife up if she's in the country.

Speaker A:

And then on Sunday we're going to have, we're going to have father children cooking class on the grill.

Speaker A:

And so we're really trying to target between 12 and 18 year old kids with, with dad.

Speaker A:

But we'll take some of the older kids, but sure, the younger, you know, we're, we're putting the floor at 12 just because of, you know, we don't want anybody to get hurt.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker A:

And everything.

Speaker A:

But you know, each class is going to do three proteins or you know, well, three items.

Speaker A:

The women's class will be three proteins and one of those dishes is actually going to be their lunch that will do the whole, they'll cook their whole lunch.

Speaker B:

Sure.

Speaker A:

On with the kids class, we're going to end with a dessert on the grill that they get to prepare.

Speaker A:

We're going to have a whole little, we're going to have, you know, everything from Nutella to marshmallow fluff to bananas and you know, veg fruit and everything that they can put on this.

Speaker A:

And we're going to do flatbreads, you know, there you go.

Speaker A:

Dessert pizza.

Speaker A:

And because of who we are, and we came from the competition world, we're going to turn that into a little kids competition.

Speaker A:

And we're going to get some of the celebrity, you know, celebrity chefs that are there to be the celebrity judges for it and come over and these kids are going to get to bring these celebrity chefs their, their dessert that they created.

Speaker B:

I like that.

Speaker A:

And I think, you know, look, that's the future of, of competition, barbecue competition, food sports are those kids, you know, so let's get them interested.

Speaker A:

They, you know, I volunteer to be a judge.

Speaker A:

Hey, heck yeah.

Speaker A:

You know, and it's going to be, you know, for us.

Speaker A:

I look at this as a great opportunity for, you know, the celebrity chefs to come by and thank first responders and thank those spouses of first responders as well that will be there, you know, thank the kids, you know, because, you know, mom or dad is getting up in the middle of their birthday or getting up and going, you know, at the Drop of the hat for an emergency.

Speaker A:

You know, they, I think it's important that we show them that hey, you know, there's a lot of love for them around the place.

Speaker A:

So.

Speaker B:

Absolutely.

Speaker B:

So I got a couple of.

Speaker B:

We usually do these kind of abstract questions in after hours.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker B:

So I have a couple here that I picked out especially for you.

Speaker B:

No, they're, they're good, they're good.

Speaker B:

Oh no, it's.

Speaker B:

If you could cook for and then dine with because you're kind of a historical organized guy.

Speaker B:

I mean, we've talked before about different things.

Speaker B:

But if you could cook for and dine with a historical figure, who would it be and what would you.

Speaker B:

And go like cook them?

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

Wow.

Speaker A:

I said, you know, I'd probably, you know, go back and you know, I think that, you know, I had an opportunity to do an event just recently called the descendants in D.C. and I, I was in Washington D.C. with the descendants of many civil rights leaders, you know, and you know, from you know, Malcolm X's kids being there to, you know.

Speaker A:

But you know, if you went back and you look at that, I, I would, I don't know if it's just, you know, if it's one person, you know, but if it was, I, I think it would be fantastic to sit there and be able to serve MLK Jr. Yeah.

Speaker A:

And, and provide him a meal.

Speaker A:

And I would probably do a traditional just barbecue, you know, throw down of, you know, ribs and pork and, and brisket to, you know, and, and to give them a true family style meal.

Speaker A:

I think, you know, that would be something, you know, that, that would be pretty incredible to be able to do.

Speaker B:

You'd have to have that peach cobbler because he was a Georgia guy.

Speaker B:

So you know, look, I like cobbler.

Speaker A:

Is, is, is one of, one of those, you know, weaknesses.

Speaker A:

It's like a, you know,

Speaker B:

it's like

Speaker A:

you're addicted out there that you don't want to touch.

Speaker A:

Like.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

But then you have something like peach or blueberry or, you know.

Speaker B:

Yeah, got it, gotta have it, gotta have it.

Speaker B:

If you could teach a politician to, to cook, to barbecue, smoke, whatever, and actually work, like not just for a photo op but like a whole day with obr.

Speaker B:

Who would it be and what would you teach them to cook and who would you do so that you didn't feel the necessity to whack em in the head with a skillet?

Speaker B:

So there you've got all your parameters for that question.

Speaker A:

That is such a loaded question.

Speaker A:

I don't even know where to go.

Speaker A:

So I, I have had a small opportunity with, with Steve Scalise when we served our one millionth meal.

Speaker A:

He actually came and.

Speaker A:

Because we were in Hammond, Louisiana, and the parish president got him to come over and, and come by and he spent about two hours with us and, and he did, he did stick, you know, did more than just stick his head in the smoker.

Speaker A:

He actually.

Speaker A:

Some pork loins actually help slice some pork loins.

Speaker A:

He wanted to see what really went into all of what we were doing.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

A very, you know.

Speaker A:

You know, all of them are controversial.

Speaker A:

If I go, if I go right, I'm, you know, I'm going to get, I'm going to get hit.

Speaker A:

If I go left, I'm going to get hit.

Speaker A:

But, you know, I think Scaly seems

Speaker B:

like a decent guy.

Speaker A:

Oh, no, he, he's a great guy.

Speaker A:

You know, he, he came in and acted like an ordinary person.

Speaker A:

There wasn't any pop.

Speaker A:

Circumstance, you know, besides his, his team coming in and doing a sweep and, and, you know, asking how many guns were in the place.

Speaker A:

Yeah, there's a lot of them.

Speaker A:

I mean, you know, we're, we're not in the greatest area of town.

Speaker A:

You know, you know, people are packing around here.

Speaker A:

But no, I mean, truthfully, I mean, Steve is one that truly comes to mind.

Speaker A:

You know, I get, in Florida, we get quite a bit from like, Mark Rubio's folks and, and, you know, the different states that we're in asking us what we're doing from their offices, because they know we're there and they've heard our name and so they want to be able to tell their parishioners in their areas what they're doing.

Speaker B:

Sure.

Speaker A:

But I think, you know, Steve's one that we've had the longest relationship with and we've done a heck of a lot of meals in the state of Louisiana.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

Is the only one that we've done more in.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I can see that.

Speaker B:

What, you know, what is Stan's favorite barbecue?

Speaker B:

I mean, non barbecue meal.

Speaker A:

Non barbecue meal.

Speaker B:

Non barbecue meal for you.

Speaker A:

So, you know, like, I go a couple of different ways.

Speaker A:

I go through these, you know.

Speaker A:

You know, there's times where it would be.

Speaker A:

It would probably be Chinese food.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Oh, yeah.

Speaker B:

That's a big one.

Speaker B:

That's a common answer.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

I love, you know, I love rice.

Speaker A:

You know, I, you know, I love a good, a good spicy chicken.

Speaker A:

You know, whether it's a Szechuan or something like that.

Speaker A:

You know, a true authentic one.

Speaker A:

You know, you Know, they look at you when you say, hey, I don't.

Speaker A:

I don't want, like, you know, white people hot.

Speaker A:

You know, I don't want.

Speaker A:

I. I want you to give me an authentic, you know, spicy.

Speaker A:

And they're like, you don't want spicy?

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Okay.

Speaker A:

Give me.

Speaker A:

Give me a medium then.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

But I think outside of that, it would probably be a good fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy.

Speaker A:

I mean, I.

Speaker A:

Look, I. I'm still trying to lose weight and not gain it all back, but boy howdy, I would.

Speaker A:

You know, that is.

Speaker A:

That's one of my favorite things in the world.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

There is a good fried chicken dinner.

Speaker B:

How could you not like it?

Speaker A:

I mean, if you throw in some okra and some greens in that.

Speaker A:

I am.

Speaker A:

I am all over it.

Speaker B:

You're ear set.

Speaker B:

You're set.

Speaker B:

It's all good.

Speaker B:

Okay, a couple more personal ones here, Stan, and then we'll.

Speaker B:

All right, I'll.

Speaker B:

I'll stop the abuse for the day.

Speaker B:

What is something your spouse was right about was correct, but you still think she was wrong?

Speaker A:

Oh, Lord, she tells me I'm wrong all the time.

Speaker B:

I understand that.

Speaker A:

Something that she was right about that.

Speaker A:

I still think she's.

Speaker A:

But I still think she's wrong.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

It's kind of a head scratcher.

Speaker B:

I know, but it.

Speaker A:

It is because, you know, it probably has to go back to when the kids were younger.

Speaker A:

You know, today it makes it pretty easy when you're, you know, as your kids get older and everything else, you.

Speaker A:

You.

Speaker A:

The arguments get less.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Oh, yeah.

Speaker A:

I found.

Speaker B:

I know that, too.

Speaker A:

I. I'm gonna guess it's something to do with our son, where she was probably right in something that she said, but I won't admit it, you know, but that's.

Speaker A:

That's one.

Speaker A:

I don't know that I can put my finger on.

Speaker A:

One right now.

Speaker A:

I'm sure if I asked her, if I hollered upstairs, she would tell me right off the bat, which one.

Speaker B:

Yeah, they keep four.

Speaker A:

A lot faster.

Speaker A:

I think a lot more than we do.

Speaker B:

They keep records.

Speaker B:

I can.

Speaker B:

I can affirm that they keep records.

Speaker B:

What would your last meal be on death row, Stan?

Speaker A:

Oh, my God.

Speaker A:

It would be a hodgepodge of everything from, you know, some sort of, like, you know, a loaded type taco street, taco berry, you know, maybe a birria type, you know, taco to.

Speaker A:

You mentioned crab earlier and a huge seafood guy, so.

Speaker A:

With some crab, maybe some scallops and lobster tail with a little Bit of, you know, prime rib thrown in there, you know, with a piece of fried chicken on the side with some okra, you know, and probably some macaroni and cheese somewhere in there.

Speaker A:

You know, I, it would be, it would be like the best, you know, potluck you've ever, high end potluck you've ever been to.

Speaker A:

That plate would be like Thanksgiving stacked high.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

Like you, you were like, you never thought you would get through the line ever, a second time.

Speaker A:

So you better, you better, you better get everything this time.

Speaker B:

Well, you're not going to gain any weight, so it doesn't matter.

Speaker A:

Look, I mean, if I'm on death row, this is it.

Speaker A:

I might as well make myself, you know, sick, you know, at that point.

Speaker A:

So, you know, but I would, it truly would be, you know, probably 10 of my most favorite things whether I would eat each one of them, but I would definitely savor each one.

Speaker B:

Well, yeah.

Speaker B:

And what about, you got to have dessert.

Speaker A:

Peanut butter pie.

Speaker B:

Okay.

Speaker B:

There you go.

Speaker A:

That is that.

Speaker A:

You want to talk about an Achilles heel when it comes to, I can, I can say no to a lot of cobblers at times.

Speaker A:

I, I, I prefer, you know, there's many times I will forego dessert for something that's more savory.

Speaker B:

Right.

Speaker A:

But you throw peanut butter pie out there and you're done.

Speaker A:

I'm done.

Speaker B:

I mean, yeah, mine's red velvet cake.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Three tier red velvet cake, cream cheese, pecan frosting, the whole thing.

Speaker B:

I see that.

Speaker B:

It's like, I gotta go call the doctor, get some gout medicine or something.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

Well, you know that nine times out of ten they come by, you know, at a, at a restaurant and they're like, hey, does anybody want anything?

Speaker A:

And I'm like, no, I'm good.

Speaker A:

You know, when it comes to the dessert menu.

Speaker A:

But if they're, then, well, let me, you know, somebody says, well, what do you have?

Speaker A:

And they start spouting it off.

Speaker A:

If they say peanut butter piece, it's all, it's like 99 of the time.

Speaker B:

It's on.

Speaker A:

Yep.

Speaker A:

I think I need to have one of those.

Speaker B:

You know, I get that.

Speaker B:

Okay, last, last one.

Speaker B:

Stan, here's your chance.

Speaker B:

Stan Hayes, obr.

Speaker B:

What's your message to the world?

Speaker A:

No, I think my message to the world is, is that, you know, we've got to, you know, we can do so much more together than we can divided.

Speaker A:

We've got to come together as a country.

Speaker A:

We've got to come together and help our neighbors in time of need.

Speaker A:

And that's what OBR does.

Speaker A:

You know, whether it's in disaster or outside of disaster.

Speaker A:

We're helping those heroes and their families.

Speaker A:

We're helping the, you know, the people that have been affected by disaster.

Speaker A:

You know, if you want to get involved with somebody, with an organization that's trying to do good in the world, you know, check out OBR.org yeah.

Speaker A:

Because if it's not us that you want to do it, find what, what's on your heart.

Speaker A:

Find what, you know, what, what really, you know, if, if you love animals, go help at the animal shelter, but find something that fulfills you and, and, and follow that, you know, because we need more of that in the world today.

Speaker B:

Absolutely.

Speaker B:

Absolutely.

Speaker B:

Stan Hayes, CEO, co founder of Operation Barbecue Relief.

Speaker B:

It's always great to talk to you, buddy.

Speaker B:

It really is.

Speaker A:

You know what?

Speaker A:

It makes an hour and 15 minutes go by really quickly.

Speaker A:

Talking with you, it does.

Speaker B:

Could be because I'm full of it, but, you know, like to think we asked some decent questions once in a while.

Speaker B:

Anyway, please check out the OBR website, and if you're in the Northwest, look for Stan this summer up at Alaa, which is just north of Vancouver off I5.

Speaker B:

I know that for a fact.

Speaker B:

I've been there.

Speaker B:

And keep an eye on the television because when you see those big winds coming up, spring, summer and fall, more than likely Stan and his team's going to be there.

Speaker B:

Stan, thank you very much.

Speaker A:

Thank you, Jeff.

Speaker A:

Appreciate it.

Speaker B:

You'd be back.

Speaker B:

We'll be back next week with another edition of After Hours and the regular Barbecue Nation show.

Speaker B:

Until then, be kind to people and remember our motto, turn it, don't burn it.

Speaker B:

Take care, everybody.

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