New Orleans restaurant looking for assistance to feed kids this summer

Ashley Hamilton
·2 min read
1

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — School classrooms are empty but the need for food to be on the table for children is at an all-time high.

With kids out of school for the summer, one business worries about how kids will get their next meal.

“We are talking about one and three children who are food insecure in New Orleans, Louisiana. In modern-day America,” said Toups’ Meatery co-owner Amanda Toups.

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Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration did reconsider participating in the federal summer feeding program for children. This after originally opting out of it nearly three months ago.

Toups’ Meatery owners Amanda and Issac say after reading the guidelines and with inflation climbing, it’s just not enough.

“To replace forty meals, which is breakfast and lunch five days a week all month, that’s forty meals. They get forty dollars. So, that’s one dollar a meal for the three months of school. I don’t know about you but the last time I fed myself for a dollar was probably twenty-five years ago. It’s just not doable,” said Toups.

Operating as a nonprofit, the owners plan to feed as many kids as they can this summer. Being parents, they strategically thought of the to-go meals.

“Cold sandwiches with a bag of chips and some fruit. Premade meals by us that they’ll be able to just put in the microwave and heat up. We also want to be able to send granola bars and packets of grits,” said Toups.

Within eighteen hours of starting the program, more and more parents applied.

“Within a matter of days, we had about seven hundred kids signed up already. We are going to try to address Orleans Parish first and then see what we can do with additional hands and additional funds for Jefferson Parish essentially,” said Toups.

With more and more applications coming in, they need assistance from the community in hopes no child goes hungry this summer.

“Those are the two main things: funds and delivery drivers. If you can’t donate funds, we totally understand. It’s tough out there, we understand. But if you can deliver food to families on Tuesdays and Fridays, those are the days we are going to try to get them half the week and half the week,” said Toups.

With the ultimate goal to make sure no parent has to worry about how they’ll feed their child.

“We know we have a goal, and that goal is to help as many people as we can. What’s the other option, to stop altogether? That’s not an option,” said Toups.

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