COLLEEN OBRIEN

Mike Rowe surprises Black Diamond treasure Mama Ginger

Oct 6, 2017, 8:43 AM

Mama Ginger Passarelli is pretty well known around here. She founded a non-profit called The Soup Ladies more than a decade ago out of the kitchen of her restaurant in Black Diamond.

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The Soup Ladies are a group of volunteers who deliver hot meals (yes, soup) to first responders during major disasters.

I was really happy to find out that after all the work that she does for others Mama Ginger was recently recognized in a big way. Mike Rowe, who is known for his show “Dirty Jobs,” has a new Facebook-only show called Returning the Favor.

Someone nominated Mama Ginger to be recognized on the show, so Rowe came to Black Diamond to surprise her.

He didn’t know much about The Soup Ladies when he got there, but from the moment Rowe and Mama embraced she told him all about their incredible accomplishments.

“Last year we put out over 11,400 meals and there’s no charge to any agency,” she said. “When those five officers were killed in Dallas we had a team go down there and we put out about 3,000 meals down there.”

Part of having Mama Ginger on the episode of Returning the Favor is to surprise her with something that can help The Soup Ladies and boy did Mike Rowe surprise her. You can watch the video here.

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Mike Rowe surprises Black Diamond treasure Mama Ginger