‘Smoke and Soul’: An Adelaide BBQ enthusiast’s road trip to feed homeless
An Adelaide man is sharpening his knives and heating up the grill for a 7000-kilometre road trip that will see him BBQ his way around Australia .
When self-proclaimed “barbecue enthusiast” Dave Meadows first began volunteering to feed those in need in Adelaide, he never anticipated he would be sharing his cooking skills around Australia.
“We’ve been feeding homeless people in Adelaide for the past three years and we’ve just been seeing that the issue of homelessness in Adelaide is getting worse,” Dave tells CityMag.
“I think the first year we did it, we were only feeding around 50 to 60 people, and then it’s gone up to over 100 last year.
“I couldn’t help but feel that after the barbecue we did this time last year, that there a bigger purpose, and there was something more that could be done.”
Since 2023, Dave has worked alongside St Vincent de Paul’s Fred’s Van providing home cooked meals to people experiencing homelessness in Adelaide.
Now, he has developed the Smoke and Soul Project, an eight-week cross country barbecue tour where he will partner with local charities to serve free meals for people “doing it tough”.
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He has currently raised more than $31,000 of his $35,000 donation goal for the Smoke and Soul Project on GoFundMe to pay for the ingredients that will feed hundreds of people in need.
Dave has mapped out 20 different locations around the country across 57 days alongside his wife Cara, and two daughters nine-year-old Charlotte and four-year-old Sofia, with the family hoping to put a spotlight on charity organisations that provide everyday support for people in need.
The family will be towing their trusty barbecue and smokers around Australia, kicking off on June 13 at an annual Adelaide cookout before setting off for Hamilton in country Victoria and then onto Mount Gambier.
They will then drive along the eastern side of Australia through Bendigo, Albury, Wagga Wagga and Canberra before reaching the coastal towns of Coffs Harbour, Ballina and Tweed Heads.
“We will have 20 barbecue events in total so it works out to being basically one event in a town, so once every three days we will be serving food,” Dave says.
“I’m doing things like pulled pork and brisket, and chili beans, and just like really winter warming type foods that the charity clientele don’t get to eat very often.”
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For the past 10 years, Dave has also hosted his own backyard barbecue where people have gathered to donate an estimated $15,000 for various charity organisations.
“I get a lot of personal happiness out of just giving back,” he says.
"I’ve got two young girls, and I want to teach them the importance of giving back and inspire them to do whatever they’re passionate about."
Suffering from a speech impediment his entire life, Dave says he has often struggled with putting himself out there. He says the Smoke and Soul Project has allowed him to overcome his fear of judgement by helping those less fortunate.
“I just want to inspire people to not let the fear of putting themselves out there hold them back from doing what they’re passionate about,” he tells CityMag.
“There’s a lot of bad negative things happening in the world at the moment, and our goal is to just do something positive and share some happiness and give people some hope.”
Despite always having a drive to help those in need, Dave says there was one moment that cemented his desire to help others.
“It was a freezing cold night, and there was a man that came up to us, and he had nothing but an old t-shirt on and shorts. He didn’t have any shoes or anything, and he had his whole life basically in a shopping bag,” Dave says.
“He was really shy and he came up to us and said, ‘is it okay if I have something to eat’, and we said ‘absolutely that’s what we’re here for’.
“That was the one moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget, because that was the one moment for me that really made me think that there is a bigger issue here, and there is something more that I can do to help.”
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