Grand Rapids’ ‘Chef O’ receives presidential award for 4K hours volunteered

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A local retired chef has received a presidential award for the thousands of hours he’s spent volunteering.

Chef Oliver Hale, also known has Chef O, has had an impressive career in the restaurant business, first started when he was 5 years old when his mom let him help with the cooking.

According to Meals on Wheels Western Michigan, he’s won multiple local and national awards, including Best Chef in Grand Rapids in 2004 and 2005 and the USA Culinary Excellence Award Winner from the American Tasting Institute in 2001, and had his own TV show, “Chef O’s Place,” from 1999 to 2010.

He also won several medals across multiple sports in the Transplant Games, according to Meals on Wheels.

Though he retired in 2010, he’s continued to cook and, despite his busy career, Hale found time to spend more than 4,000 hours volunteering for multiple organizations. On Wednesday, he was awarded the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for those hours.

“This is overwhelming to me because this is … the highest honor you can get for volunteer service,” Hale told News 8. “When I do things, I go out and do it from the heart. I don’t go out to try to win awards or anything like this, so this is unexpected. But also I am very grateful for receiving it.”

Hale spent more than 4,000 hours volunteering for six organizations: Meals on Wheels Western Michigan, Brookside Christian Reformed Church, God’s Kitchen, Festival of the Arts, Kidney Foundation of Northwest Ohio and WKTV.

“Chef O’s dedication to Meals on Wheels Western Michigan is truly inspiring,” Meals on Wheels Western Michigan President and CEO Lisa Wideman, who presented him with the award Wednesday, said in a release. “He first joined our board of directors in 1994 and has been a loyal supporter ever since. His unwavering commitment to creating healthy, nutritious meals and his passion for making a difference in our community exemplify the core values we strive to uphold every day.”

Hale said it was a kidney transplant that inspired him to volunteer.

“You are sitting and talking to a person who is now 39 years out from his first kidney transplant,” he told News 8. “I was very, very sick at the time before I got my transplant. And to be able to … sit here before you and talk to you is an overwhelming moment. … When I got my transplant … I promised myself that I’m going to start doing more in the community, not only in the city but state and nationally.”

He said volunteering is his way of giving back.

Much of his volunteering hours involved food, whether it be serving on the board of Meals on Wheels and helping the team prepare food, or serving at God’s Kitchen.

He encouraged others to volunteer, and suggested finding things they’re good at and using those skills.

“This country was built on people volunteering their time and effort to make things work,” he said. “As a chef, anything that deal with food I’m happy with doing it. … Check around and see what organization you can fit into and help out and do things.”

He also encouraged people to sign up to be an organ donor.

“Organ donation does work,” he said. “Talk with your family first and let them know that you want to put that heart on your driving license. … You never know the life you may change, it may be somebody like me.”

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