El Caldito Crew Chief Cook

Julie Boxer grew up hiking the forests of Washington state, a colder, rainier, Pacific northwest ocean climate compared to the Chihuahuan Desert which surrounds the City of Las Cruces. Boxer became an outdoors skills trainer with The Mountaineers, a Master of History at University of Washington, and contracted overseas teacher for the United States Air Force with University of Maryland.

When deciding not to become a career teacher, Boxer chose to combine the love of cooking and the livelihood of restaurant ownership with Dad’s Place, a breakfast and lunchtime diner located in the downtown Washington State Capitol district of Olympia. With laborious hours and lively working shifts, Boxer transformed the diner into a successful catering side business, and, as Catering Director, incorporated important avenues of revenue for large scale venues and guest events.

Boxer has traveled to Japan, and England, and most recently “Thru-Hiked” from hut-to-hut in New Zealand. After retirement to the southwestern United States, Boxer joined an active community volunteer movement during Las Cruces’ Volunteer Fair. A member of the Ocotillo Hikers, and El Caldito’s working board Secretary, Boxer leads the kitchen as Crew Chief Cook each Thursday. Shifts begin in the early morning hours to prepare hot entrees, side-dishes, and the daily soup to be served for the 11:30 AM lunch hour. 

Julie Boxer says that as Crew Chief Cook the “Chief Challenge” remains consistent volunteer engagement for those handy at making sandwiches, preparing salads, and capable of preparing and serving varieties of hot and cold foods to El Caldito guests. As Secretary, Boxer reminds us that weekly tasks include annual events’ preparation for Potters’ Guild of Las Cruces “Empty Bowls,” Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Military Veterans’ dinners, and more. Boxer names El Caldito as part of the successes of Camp Hope, to include Community of Hope collaborative alliance partnerships working in tandem with Roadrunner Food Bank and Casa de Peregrinos Food Program to help end hunger in southern New Mexico’s Doña Ana County.

Read:

Listen:

Hope Stories 14 –– 1h 38m duration. Recorded in the narrator’s home.