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thedrifter
10-05-09, 12:14 PM
October 5, 2009
Restaurateur honored for efforts to feed troops

Owner of D'Carlo's Italian Café surprised while touring base

Colin Atagi
The Desert Sun

Restaurant owner Carl Schuch didn't think he could feed hundreds of Marines at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms when he was presented with the idea two years ago.

Today, however, he looks forward to the opportunity, and the owner of D'Carlo's Italian Café, 42-418 Bob Hope Drive in Rancho Mirage, feeds 400 men and women at the Twentynine Palms base twice a year.

“It's all the girls and guys who have no family; they're single,” said Schuch, 71, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Delia Schuch.

He most recently went to the base in April, and he plans on going again in November.

For his efforts, combat center officials recently recognized the Bermuda Dunes man.

He was invited on Sept. 25 to take a tour of the base, and little did he know he was going to find himself in the middle of a celebration.

“I was just wearing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt,” Schuch said.

He was among about 40 Southern California individuals, businesses and nonprofit organizations that were honored for supporting the combat center, officials said.

They all contribute money or other types of products and services for the Marines.

Other local recipients include the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies and American Friends of our Armed Forces in Indian Wells, according to base officials.

Schuch, who has owned his restaurant for more than five years, spends six hours with employees making 120 pounds of pasta and 18 pans of salad.

Some of the supplies are donated by local businesses, like Smart & Final and Heimark Distributing.

All of the food is transported in about three sport utility vehicles to the combat center and fed to a long line of Marines.

“I've seen them come back for three or four (servings) each time,” Schuch said. “You feed 400 of them and you probably get 5,000 ‘Thank you's.”

Colin Atagi covers Rancho Mirage for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at (760) 778-4645 or colin.atagi@thedesertsun.com

Ellie