Korean immigrant to Anchorage keeps paying it forward, even decades later

Smoke drifted from the back of a pickup at Mountain View Lions Park Friday. A whole pig roasted inside a barrel on the vehicle as Cheong Kim and friends served food to some of the city's residents in need. Nearby, dozens of people – many homeless – filed through to fill plates with Kim's slow-cooked pork, kimchee and soda and eat together on a warm summer afternoon.

Kim provided the food and covered all the costs, which he said totaled more than $900. It was only the most recent way Kim has pitched in to try to feed homeless people in Anchorage. Until March, he had volunteered in the kitchen at Bean's Café for 13 years.

Paul Lee, one of nine friends Kim recruited to pitch in, described his friend.

"His heart has been filled with humanity," he said.

Kim, who has lived in Anchorage for 37 years, traces his motivation to serve others back to the Korean War in the 1950s. He explained, as Lee assisted with translation, that during the war his brother was taken by North Korean soldiers.

"He doesn't know (if) he's still dead or alive," Lee said.

Now in his 70s, he has always felt a duty to repay Americans for the protection U.S. forces provided to South Korea, he said. This is just one small way.

Kim, who operated a janitorial company before he retired, focused on serving meals after meeting former Bean's Café director Jim Crockett, who died in 2012. Though he no longer cooks there, he has plans to continue to work. Kim has a truck he hopes to convert to a mobile kitchen to serve homeless people, he said. The truck has a "Mr. Kim's Food Truck" sign but no permit to operate quite yet and is currently just used for storage.

Calida Kim, another volunteer, taught a few picnic-goers to say "thank you" in Korean. She said she was very proud of Kim, and that she hoped the group of them would be a meaningful example to others in Anchorage's Korean community about the importance of serving others.

"You have to look around at what people need," she said.

Marcus Davis ate quietly with friends in the park's picnic shelter. Davis said he's been homeless for about a week. He said he was taken aback when Kim first brought him water and a snack on the streets in Mountain View. Then Kim did it again another day.

Davis said he lost his job recently, but Kim's example was meaningful.

"I'm going to get back on my feet," Davis said. "And I hope to be able to do the same thing he's doing one day."