How Restaurants Are Giving Back This Holiday Season | Eater

"A Mid-City restaurant run by couple Amanda and Issac Toups mobilizes kitchen and staff to deliver holiday meal boxes — filled with whole chickens, collard greens, apple pies, cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese, and cornbread — to roughly 2,000 people. Amanda frames the work as a moral imperative: “Food is a right,” Amanda says. “It’s not a ‘maybe’ — it’s a right, a human right. If the government’s not going to step in, then we’re going to step in, because that’s our business. We care about our fellow citizens here in New Orleans.” Through their nonprofit, Toups’ Family Meal, the team combats food insecurity year-round, and the holidays amplify that mission: during Thanksgiving week they served 1,500 people, and during the week of Christmas they plan to serve 2,000. After years of advocacy and cooking Creole and Cajun fare for those in need, the owners emphasize supporting children in their community, noting the urgency of child poverty and pledging, “So we’re going to do whatever we can to change that.”" - Kayla Stewart