Lenten Gumbo served for 20 years, still going strong

Gibbens Robichaux has been stirring the gumbo pot at St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral in Thibodaux for 20 years.

It all began when the parishioner heard about sausage gumbo being served by St. John’s Episcopal Church in 1990. He immediately thought, “Why not bring that idea to my church?”

So Robichaux contacted Monsignor Francis Amedee at St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral, and the church began serving seafood gumbo in the Life Center behind the church every Friday in Lent since 1991.

“I saw they were doing it there on Mondays, and I said, ‘We don’t eat meat on Fridays during Lent, so let’s do a seafood gumbo on Fridays,'” said Robichaux.

He has since passed the reigns over to Jimmy Labit, who still sirs the pot with a smile.

“This is an effort by the whole community here,” said Labit. “The church and the parishioners have been very helpful. [The church] donates potatoes for the potato salad and all of our deserts, and we get a lot of other cash donations from parishioners and other people in the city. This has been a great gumbo project.”

Both Labit and Robichaux can remember back to the first gumbo serving in 1991 when 75 people came, and they thought that was a lot.

But now, about 750 people come every Friday during Lent to enjoy seafood gumbo, potato salad, a dessert and all the tea you can drink.

The church charges $6 per meal, with all proceeds going to the Good Samaritan Food Bank in Thibodaux.

“It’s probably the best feeling a person could ever have, helping give back to someone who’s in need,” said Labit. “I’m not a rich person, so I can’t give out a whole lot of money to help anyone. But I’m retired, so I have a lot of time, and I devote all my time to projects such as this.”

Over the years, the Lenten Gumbo project has sold more than 60,000 bowls and has donated $160,000 to the Good Samaritan Food Bank.

About 50 volunteers work for the Lenten Gumbo project every Friday. This includes about 20 men who do the majority of the cooking and about 30 women who do a majority of the serving.

“There’s a lot of camaraderie with all our friends over here,” said tea maker Herb Toups. “So you make good friends, and I enjoy it.”

Gibbens Robichaux’s wife Joann is in charge of decorating the Life Center every Friday for gumbo, and she also enjoys the company of both the workers and the customers.

“It gives you the chance to meet people that you may say hello to and keep on going, but here we’ve become another family,” said Joann Robichaux. “And then when they do come in, they sit around and talk, and we get to know each other.”

But if you don’t have time to sit and eat with friends and family, feel free to take a meal to go.

“We have a container we can put it in, and right now we’re selling more to go than we are sitting in,” said Labit. “We sell approximately 250 sit down meals and about 500 ‘to go’ every week.”

Nearly 50 volunteers work every Friday during Lent for St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral Lenten Gumbo project. The proceeds go to the Good Samaritan Food Bank in Thibodaux. * Photo by RICHARD FISCHER