By Pauline Masson –
Josephine “Josie” Oberfeld was working in the food industry in her family’s eatery at South First and Orleans streets at age fourteen. She actually started food preparation there when she was ten but couldn’t be hired as an employee because of child labor laws.
Eugene and Joann Hoffman opened Hoffmans walk-up/carryout restaurant in 1965. They had five children: Josie, Amelia, Clay, Steve and Tony, who spent much of their childhood in the take-out restaurant.
Joann, the consummate mother, was the oldest of twelve children and was a whiz at organizing big feeds – assigning everyone to their task to bring it all together and completing inspections, after each task, including eyeing every dish after it was washed.
“Back then we had full meals, shrimp and chicken baskets, spaghetti, lasagna,” Ms. Oberfeld said. “People would order diner plates and pick them up.
Gene and Joann Hoffman also managed the Pacific Country Club. And together they created a food dynasty that lasted 60 years and continues to this day. Ms. Oberfeld’s stint as manager of the Tri-County Senior Center, which feeds more than 100 senior citizens each week, is one third of the clan.
Today, Amelia Hoffman Timms owns and operates Taste of Graze Catering, located on East Osage. Her brother Clay formerly operated the flagship building, Hoffman’s Corner, which specializes in ice cream and bills itself as Hoffman’s Drive In.
Always the rebel in the family, when she graduated from St. Bridget Elementary School, Josie pulled away from the close family enclave and hometown trappings to enroll in Kennedy High School in St. Louis County.
“Well, I was always kind of the rebel, and I could drive,” she said. “Some close friends and I thought it would be good for us to reach out.”
After graduation, she landed a job with Missouri Baptist Hospital as a trainee on the computer. No one knew what a computer was, but she was up for it. That’s when computers were huge metal frames that filled an entire room. Operators could input information into the computer and retrieve it with an esoteric system of codes.
To Josie, it was a piece of cake.
She arrived at the computer age at just the right time. Institutions and businesses with big paperwork demands, like hospitals, school districts and manufacturers were experimenting with the new computers to improve efficiency and reduce labor.
From the beginning, Josie was as good at it as she was at cooking and could easily grasp the snippets of information the humongous computer generated.
What followed was a change in technology as computers got smaller and increased information storage space grew on the scale of an avalanche.
She moved up to the Special School District, whose Star Program was introducing computers in its record keeping. As a computer operator at St. Louis University she was asked to train professors and students on how to use computers.
That landed her a job at Mercy Health where found herself teaching doctors how to input their patient records on the computer – saving countless hours of hand writing.
When giant beer manufacturer Anheuser Busch installed computers in every one of its plants across the U.S.they hired Josie to travel to each plant and train employees on how to input and capture company procedures on the computer. She had the job for 16 years.
“I loved it,” she said. “It was rewarding, I think I had a need to help people that was satisfied. It was a really good feeling.”
She was fresh off a satisfying computer technology career when her sister Amelia told her that the Tri County Senior Center was looking for a director to replace Terri Ruyle, who was retiring.
“Sis, this is right for you,” Ms. Simms said.
She was hesitant at first, but when Brian Smith, Senior Center board member talked to her about the record keeping requirements of a federally funded food service agency, she accepted the job.\
Here’s the twist. With all her technology exposure she never lost her love of cooking. Her avocation was preparing meals for large crowds.
“I always loved cooking in a big pot,” she said. “And I kept adding things.”
Life at the senior center is ideal for a mixed media personality, who thrives on helping others.
Not only can she take the record keeping that goes with a federally funded food program in stride, she is captivated by the variety of programs, entertainment and health services that are provided for senior center regulars.
“The bingo and card games keep seniors active,” she said. “But they also come here for health care needs like blood pressure tests and learning CPR.”
Line dancing and music presentations, a regular since the center opened in 2007, are still regular events.
After the federal government provided the free meal program, attendance at the center escalated.
Today kitchen manager Colleen Utz and her volunteers help with cleaning and creating menus that meet federal requirements, which Ms.Oberfeld publishes and posts on social media so diners know what to expect.
I always liked cooking for a big crowd, and I thought I could do this job with my hands tied behind my back,” she said. “But I’ve come to see that there is much more here than meets the eye. T his is one of the busiest places in town, which I love.”
By far the best part of the job , she said, is the people who have come to see the senior center as their home away from home.
“Being surrounded every day by a room full of happy people is the best part of the job,” she said. “I always had an inner need to help people. To see six to nine tables full of diners meeting up with their friends – it’s a really good feeling.”
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