MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Great things are happening in Orange Mound. One Tennessee woman who grew up there is now giving back to the community that poured into her growing up.
Her program is community funded and makes sure that any and everyone who lives there starts their day on a full stomach.
It is called the Free Community Food Program, where people can enjoy hot meals every weekday morning. The founder started this program in Nashville just four years ago and she has already made more than 12,000 meals and fed more than 500 people.
It is a summer program which runs from June through August, and now she is bringing it right to the Mound.
Free Community Food Program Founder Jeneisha Harris walks the historic streets in Orange Mound with her team to make sure that everyone they see knows that they have got a fresh, hot breakfast meal waiting on them at Charity’s House on Douglass Street, where the community’s serenity garden is.
“The menu is specifically targeted towards hot breakfast. Studies show that when an adult, a child has hot breakfast before their day, they’re more productive,” Harris said. “We definitely wanted to specialize in hot meals.”
The Free Community Food Program is mainly centered around the youth which keeps them fed.
Jeneisha was inspired by the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for School Children Program which was started in 1969. Jeneisha said her program is a continuation that holds many of the same values.
“When they started their free breakfast program, they had waffles. They had eggs, juice. They had bacon and sausage,” Jeneisha expressed. “We also provide a vegetarian and vegan option, but I wanted to stick to the original Black Panther Party’s mission, the blueprint, and their menu.”
Jeneisha said it is her way of paying respect to the group. She started the program in Nashville, where she now lives, but has expanded her outreach to St. Louis and now Orange Mound.
And like the Black Panthers, the community dollars keep the program going.
“I personally have a lot of pressure as the founder of this organization to put that non-profit status - because obviously more funds will come, but I do take pride in being a mutual aid program. It’s another way to honor them by not putting that non-profit status onto the organization,” Jeneisha said.
The program also partners with a number of other organizations in the neighborhood like the Guns Down in Orange Mound group which aims to stop gun violence.
“We need the young people to take over. I said, ‘We feeding the soul, and she feeding the flesh... you can’t fail with that. Anytime you’re doing anything in God’s name, it’s going to be successful,” Founder Esther Cook-Jones said.
Residents can stop by Charity’s House between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. for a free meal.
The Charity House is owned by Ms. Ella Davis, the wife of the late civil rights activist and former council member Fred L. Davis, who was a pillar of the community. The house was named after his mother. It sits at the corner of Douglass Avenue right across from Beulah Baptist Church.
It is a place where residents can come for legal advice, domestic and substance abuse counseling, and other services.
Jeneisha said she looks forward to expanding this program and though it is centered around feeding children, Orange Mound is her exception because it is her homeplace.