Ginger Passarelli Senecal, known to most simply as “Mama,” got teary-eyed as the Soup Ladies’ new mobile kitchen pulled into the parking lot of her Black Diamond restaurant, Mama Passarelli’s.

Brand new and with a custom Soup Ladies paint job, Senecal described the new rig as “beautiful.”

With an arm around Senecal’s shoulders, Metropolitan King County Councilman Reagan Dunn, who was instrumental in helping the Soup Ladies get the trailer-mounted kitchen, lavished praise on her during its official unveiling Oct. 21.

“It’s even more beautiful with you serving soup in it,” Dunn said. “It’s an honor and a privilege to help an organization so worthy.”

King County provided $41,250 to the Soup Ladies to help the volunteer group with its always-on-call disaster response efforts. A ceremonial check was presented by Dunn to the organization that was founded by Senecal.

The Soup Ladies also have received a one-ton pickup truck – surplused by the county earlier this year – that will be used to tow the mobile kitchen. Dunn said the donated truck’s value is $5,000.

Dunn and his wife, Paige, first discovered the Soup Ladies when the couple had dinner at Mama Passarelli’s not long after they moved to the Maple Valley area two years ago.

“By the time I left that dinner, I was totally sold on the cause, on the mission,” Dunn said. “Paige and I talked about what we could do to help. We considered writing a personal check. Then I said, ‘Hey, I’m an elected official.’”

While Dunn tracked down money in the county’s budget, other local community organizations found ways to help. Shane Davies, president of Maple Valley Rotary, said the club members were happy to pitch in.

“We were focused on work we were doing” in the African nation of Cameroon, Davies said, but to help the Soup Ladies, “we scrambled around to figure out how to get (cash) together, and we raised $27,000. We’re proud to be a part of this.”

After a quick ribbon-cutting, the crowd was also rewarded with Passarelli’s soup and cups of beef or chicken stroganoff with dinner rolls. Before the soup even came out of the kitchen in large pots, the smell of something savory wafted from the kitchen.

For years, the Soup Ladies, even before they formalized the organization, have traveled all over the country feeding survivors and especially emergency-responders – from the Gulf Coast ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, to the wildfires in California last fall, as well as local situations like the 2006 windstorm and last year’s flooding in southwest Washington.

Another benefit of the mobile kitchen is that in the event of any local natural disasters, such as an earthquake or an eruption of Mount Rainier, then the Soup Ladies will be totally self-contained and self-sufficient. The rig is eight feet by 24 feet and has a generator, holding tanks and propane cooking.

Having the mobile kitchen will allow the Soup Ladies to streamline their operations, said Senecal. She noted she told supporters eight years that “we need a mobile kitchen. And here we are eight years later. It’s such a blessing to get this trailer.”

Staff writer Kris Hill can be reached at (425) 432-1209 (extension 5054) and khill@reporternewspapers.com