San Antonio city officials have messed with the wrong Texas chef. Attorney-turned-cook and activist Joan Cheever has spent the past decade feeding the homeless from the back of her charity food truck, until earlier this month she was slapped with a $2,000 fine for her charitable efforts. Cheever founded The Chow Train non-profit organization in 2005, preparing hot meals in her  licensed mobile kitchen and serving them at city parks out of her personal pickup, which she has been using as a delivery truck because it is more maneuverable. Punished for compassion: On April 7, San Antonio police officers issued a fine to local chef and activist Joan Cheever (right) for feeding the homeless at Maverick Park . Wrong truck: Cheever, the founder of The Chow Train non-profit food truck, was serving hot meals out of her personal pickup truck because it is more compact . No permit: Cheever's mobile kitchen is commercially licensed, but her personal vehicle is not . Hefty sum: Mrs Cheever was issued a citation and a $2,000 fine for failure to serve food out of a licensed food truck . Mixed messages: After writing out the citation, the officers allowed Cheever and her volunteers to continue distributing the meals . On April 7, Cheever and her band of volunteers were dishing out free food to those in need at Maverick Park on the outskirts of San Antonio when she was approached by four police officers on bicycles. Speaking to ABC News, Cheever said she asked the cops, ‘What's the problem?' and they replied, 'You.' After a brief exchange with the SAPD cops, Mrs Cheever was issued a citation and a $2,000 fine for failure to serve food out of a licensed food truck. After writing out the ticket, Cheever said the officers gave her the green light to continue distributing meals. San Antonio city officials stated that Cheever was cited for ‘failing to adhere to long-standing regulations that are in place to ensure public health and safety.’ City spokeswoman Di Galvan told ABC that mobile food establishment permits are not transferable from one vehicle to another. But the hefty fine has done nothing to deter the plucky Good Samaritan from carrying out her mission to provide much-needed sustenance to the city's poor. Her meals usually consist of a vegetable soup, a main course, such as meatball or coq au vin, and a dessert. Since her April 7 run-in with the law, the chef has offered meals on two separate occasions at the park, each time drawing larger than usual crowds of supporters. No letter of apology: Cheever received this official letter from the city summoning her to court June 23 . Cooking up kindness: Cheever is an attorney and a trained chef who started her Chow Train charity in 2005 . Good Samaritans: Cheever and her band of volunteers have served hundreds of thousands of hot meals to those in need in San Antonio and other areas . ‘I came back to the park the following Tuesday and was met with 100 people who had candles and signs,’ Cheever said. ‘This isn’t only about The Chow Train. It’s about every non-profit and every person who wants to do a good thing, but are intimidated by the $2,000 fine and possible arrest. So we’re just going to keep rolling on.’ Cheever has retained the services of a lawyer to fight the citation. 'I’m not going to settle and I’m not going to pay the fine and I’m not going to stop,' a defiant Mrs Cheever declared. ‘They can come out every Tuesday and write me up a ticket and we’ll just start collecting them.’ Joan Cheever, a wife and mother, had graduated from a culinary school and was featured on celebrity cook Rachel Ray's daytime talk show. Besides offering gourmet meals to low-income residents of San Antonio, Cheever and her group of helpers also have delivered meals to victims of natural disasters in places like Joplin, Missouri, and Moore, Oklahoma, which were ravaged by tornadoes recently. Cheever said it was insulting to her as a licensed cook that the city of San Antonio was treating her as a danger to the community. Religious freedom: Cheever accused police and city officials of violating her freedom of religion because she considers cooking and feeding the poor a free exercise of her faith . Defiant: Cheever pans to fight the citation and even possibly sue the city for violating the 1999 Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act . The Chow Train founder is scheduled to go before a judge June 23. Cheever said she is prepared to invoke the 1999 Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, saying she has the right to feed the homeless because she considers it a free exercise of her faith. Cheever said as much to Officer Mike Marotta as he was writing out the ticket to her April 7. ‘One of the police officers said, “Ma’am, if you want to pray, go to church,” and I said, “This is how I pray. When I cook this food and deliver it to the people who are less fortunate,’ Cheever told News 4 San Antonio. Cheever is now considering suing the city for infringing upon her freedom of religion. The San Antonio City Council’s Quality of Life committee held a meeting Tuesday to address the controversy surrounding Cheever's citation, saying that their goal is to protect the homeless from unsafe food, reported San Antonio Express News. But Cheever argued that she been distributing food in plain sight week after week for years, and local officers would pass by and wave at her. Some of them, according to the chef, even accepted meals from her. Besides offering gourmet meals to low-income residents of San Antonio, Cheever and her group of helpers also have delivered meals to victims of natural disasters in places like Joplin, Missouri, and Moore, Oklahoma, which were ravaged by tornadoes recently. Rep, Joaquin Castro, a Democrat representing San Antonio, has weighed in on the hot-button issue, calling on the City Council to ‘do right by Joan Cheever’ and ‘allow her to feed the homeless.’ This is the latest example of an ongoing nationwide crackdown on Good Samaritans offering help to the homeless. Last year, a 90-year-old pastor and World War II veteran was arrested twice in a single week for feeding the needy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. According to a recent report by the National Coalition for the Homeless cited by the Washington Post, 71 cities across the US have either passed or proposed an ordinance that clamps down on feeding the homeless. Cheever has launched a GoFundMe campaign asking for donations towards her legal battle with the City of San Antonio. As of Wednesday night, Cheever's supporters have contributed nearly $10,000 to her war chest.
San Antonio police officers issued a fine to local chef and activist Joan Cheever for feeding the homeless at Maverick Park April 7.
Cheever founded The Chow Train non-profit food truck in 2005 to feed the city's poor.
Has a commercially licensed mobile food truck where she prepares her meals, but she serves them out of her personal pickup truck.
Cheever accused city officials of violating her freedom of religion because she considers cooking and feeding the poor a free exercise of her faith.