NEW ORLEANS — A cult favorite restaurant in New Orleans is going the extra mile this summer. In addition to serving their usual clients, Toups Meatery has taken on 525 extra mouths to feed over the next few months.
The idea sparked after owners Amanda and Isaac Toups heard Governor Landry initially rejected the summer EBT program for kids back in February.
"For me, it was a guttural reaction. I heard that children were hungry, just like in the COVID I heard people were hungry, I got real mad, and I lit the crawfish pots, and I started cooking," Isaac Toups said. "That’s what we’re all about you’re hungry I don’t’ care what your background is I don’t’ care why you’re hungry. You’re hungry. You need a meal. It’s an essential human right or should be an essential human right."
"Isaac and I are well known for sort of stepping in and feeding the community in times of crisis, we started during the pandemic we’ve stepped in for disaster relief, but this is a different situation. This is children," Amanda Toups said.
The legislature eventually opted into the program, but at $120 per child for a summer that's supposed to last all summer, Amanda Toups said it wasn't enough.
"I’m a mom. That’s what it is. I’m a mom, and I don’t know what it means not to be able to feed my kids. I’ve never been there, but I’ve talked to a lot of moms who can’t, and my heart says we have to do it," Amanda Toups said.
Now, they've started a non-profit, Toups Family Meal, that will help serve not only the kids this summer but also other community outreach programs.
On Tuesday, they packed and delivered the first round of meals. The Toups say the kids will get two deliveries each, with hot meals, sandwiches, snacks, and groceries like granola bars, fruit, and oatmeal. They say it's truly taking a community effort to get this done.
"It’s chaos we have our walk-ins filled with sandwiches we have crawfish pots worth of red beans and smothered chicken our little rice cooker is the little rice cooker that could it’s cooking 100 pounds of raw rice," Isaac Toups said. "It’s always going to be a little different depending on what we can get donated and what we can get at a discount; at the same time, we want to make sure it’s nutritious and filling."
In the future, they hope Toups Family Meal can be a mobilization type of relief for the community, responding to disasters, celebrating holidays, and meeting residents' needs.
If you want to help, you can visit them at Toupsfamilymeal.com
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