Amanda Toups, partner with her husband Isaac Toups in New Orleans’ Toups Meatery, flew into action when COVID-19 closed the restaurant back in March, 2020. The couple cooked and handed out to-go meals for their employees and their families and anyone else who showed up in need. Within a few days, 500 people wrapped around the block.
Through the end of 2020, they prepped and distributed 100,000 meals, but the need didn’t end once the pandemic eased and restaurants were back in operation. In 2021, Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans, and in 2024, the governor of Louisiana cut back funds on summer feeding programs for school children. Amanda immediately brought back Toups Family Meal, starting with Easter boxes. Then she got in front of the media to broadcast the dire need in the community and spread the word on her active social platforms. As a result, she was able to drum up support from locals and other nonprofits to raise funds and help with meal deliveries. The Toups amassed a volunteer delivery driver army of 200 people and this summer delivered 70,500 meals.
Hundreds of volunteers help Amanda Toups (center) pack and distribute meals. | Photo courtesy of Toups Meatery.
Now Toups Family Meal is a fully operative nonprofit with a commissary kitchen, meal and grocery distribution center and delivery hub, mostly self-funded but supported by donations and volunteers. Listen as Amanda shares the heartwarming story of how she and Isaac turned a personal community outreach effort into a hunger-fighting organization through their generosity and commitment.Â
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Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
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