LINCOLN — As chef and co-owner of the former Smoke and Lola’s restaurant, Lincoln resident Wayne Johnson would often whip up free, nourishing meals for community members.

During its run at 28 North St., the Bristol eatery served an estimated 9,000-plus cups of “Pat’s Soup of the Day,” a free soup offering that paid homage to Johnson’s late friend, Pat Peters. A former chef at Middlebury College, Peters would whip up free soup for the community on her days off.

Now, Johnson is gearing up to take his culinary talents — and the spirit of Pat’s Soup of the Day — on the road. He’s launching Don’t Panic Catering, a self-sufficient, mobile catering business that will travel around the country providing high-quality catering services and use surplus revenue to offer free meals.

And that’s not all Johnson’s hoping to provide. The effort is aimed at creating “a safe space for people to gather, converse, connect, eat and start to heal the divisiveness within our communities across the nation.”

“The biggest goal for me is to have people sit down who don’t agree and break bread essentially and share thoughts and ideas that have nothing to do with their differences, and only to do with the things that make us all human,” Johnson said during a recent interview.

DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE

In addition to cooking at Smoke & Lola’s, Johnson’s culinary background includes stints at Middlebury eateries Otter Creek Café (now Otter Creek Bakery) and American Flatbread, as well as time abroad learning from chefs in Peru and Jamaica.

Asked about the inspiration behind his latest food-related endeavor, Johnson pointed to Peters and the ideas the pair would think up together.

“She and I were those dreamer types, and we always wanted to see, ‘What could we do to, not change the world, but be an effective example of something worth doing,’” he explained. “(Peters’s free soup movement) was phenomenal. She didn’t feed a ton of people, but she made a statement with it.”

Johnson said he and Peters would often come up with “grandiose ideas,” before she died in 2015. Those ideas would consist of setting a seemingly impossible goal, such as traveling to Machu Picchu, and then trying to meet it.

DON’T PANIC CATERING will operate out of a former military mobile kitchen trailer that Wayne Johnson and several community members are refurbishing. The fully functional kitchen folds up into a more compact trailer, which will allow it to access a variety of venues around the country.
Independent photo/Marin Howell

“Basically, our conversations were, ‘Don’t limit yourself based on what you’re told you can and can’t do,’” he recalled.

Shooting for what seems impossible has remained a motivator for Johnson and was part of what led him to start Don’t Panic Catering.

“That was another part of the inspiration for me, was knowing … I got this little window of time on this planet; I could choose to recluse, be miserable, be happy despite what’s going on around me, I could choose all these kind of dynamics, or I could choose to be involved and to participate and hope to be an example of lifting folks up for simply the purpose of knowing that it feels good to be lifted,” he said.

Through Don’t Panic Catering, Johnson is looking to provide an opportunity for people across different walks of life to come together over food.

“I’d like to see how many conversations could be started with people who may not have ever been willing to speak other than in anger, and I think that food is the best vehicle for that because it’s something we all need and find some level of joy in,” he said.

The initiative is also intended to help foster “dignity, respect, and support for those in need.” Johnson was homeless for a couple years in his youth and recalled how challenging it was to find food, and how doing so at times required exchanging your dignity for a meal.

“When you get stuck into those depths of a learned helplessness and hopelessness — like homelessness and poverty in general, or catastrophic weather incidents where people who have no insurance are now left with nothing, those kind of dynamics — you’ve done all the right things, you’ve worked hard, you’ve tried to make sure that you’ve dotted all your I’s, and you still wind up having to beg or go through that situation,” he said. “It’s crushing, and it creates a fear and an anger that winds up spreading, so then you wind up with this further division of the haves and have-nots.”

In short: Everyone deserves to have a free meal.

“My inspiration comes from the idea of being able to provide people with the idea of dignity and that we care about each other on a scale that we might not say or recognize,” he said.

KITCHEN ON WHEELS

Johnson is in the process of refurbishing a former military mobile kitchen trailer that will house Don’t Panic Catering. The fully functional kitchen, which folds into a more compact trailer, will be towed by a bus, and have the capacity to serve an estimated 300 people three meals a day.

Johnson and several friends lending their talents are currently working to install a bread oven, refrigerator and a sink. The goal is ultimately to make the mobile kitchen self-sufficient, complete with solar and water.

Johnson’s plan is to run a low-profit corporation, traveling to spots around the country to cater events and using the proceeds to serve free, nutritional meals. Johnson noted the mobile kitchen’s ability to be compact will allow Don’t Panic Catering to access all sorts of venues.

“I’m thinking anything from different kinds of extreme sports where you’ve got to get out to a hard-to-reach place, mountain bike racing, different things like that, or high-end stuff because I love doing high-end culinary,” Johnson said of the types of events he’d be able to cater. But he’s open to all types of occasions.

Johnson’s hoping to cater Don’t Panic Catering’s first pop-up event by June and be officially on the road by this fall. The goal is to reach each of the 48 contiguous United States.

What’ll be on the menu? Johnson said he plans to talk with residents in the places he visits to learn more about the types of food they like to eat, though he added that he enjoys cooking international food. At Smoke & Lola’s, Johnson whipped up dishes from a variety of different places, from Lebanese food to Kurdish cuisine.

“Food is a great way to communicate about a people or a group that you don’t necessarily know or will never meet,” he said.

Johnson’s found that serving food from different regions can help break down barriers and biases.

“I like to cook food from regions that people don’t know a lot about, so that way it creates conversation and it makes the world smaller, and people will be able to feel less apprehensive about one another when they’re talking because they at least know a little something,” he said. “(To share) the diversity in food cultures … is a really neat way to open people’s eyes about the commonalities in the things that we share love and desire for.”

Ultimately, the hope is for Don’t Panic Catering to become a year-round operation that provides disaster relief assistance, though Johnson noted he’s still working through the training and other requirements that would allow for that.

In the meantime, he’s working to get things up and running. Several community members are lending a hand, with friends helping out with things like electric and water for the mobile kitchen, along with other aspects of the effort.

Johnson’s learning how to weld and plans to take an online diesel mechanic class, so he’s able to address any repairs needed on the road.

“I’m trying to learn as many different things as I possibly can,” he said.

Those interested in supporting the effort can find a GoFundMe at tinyurl.com/dontpaniccatering or contact Johnson at [email protected]. Johnson said he welcomes any help in spreading the word about Don’t Panic Catering’s mission or other ways community members want to get involved.

“I figure anybody that feels inspired that wants to be part of something different, even if it’s just a conversation, I’m really open to it,” he said.

Johnson’s hope is for the operation to be community-driven, and ultimately, to build something bigger than a catering business.

“Food is my favorite. I love feeding people; sitting down and watching someone enjoy something where silence just takes over and they’re just stuck in that moment, that’s like the best, but most of that’s ego, most of that’s my feeling like I’ve got value,” he said. “The idea of people recognizing that we’re in it together, that would be the magic.”