Lola Stephens-Bell. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Did you know that JBG donates food to help Lola Stephens-Bell, also known as the Nubian Queen, feed over 1000 free meals to the hungry each week? In a town like Austin where new restaurant pops up every week, her kitchen, Nubian Queen Lola's Cajun Soul Food, stands apart from the rest. Not only does she cook up some mighty delicious soul food, but she's serving it up with a side of food justice and we want you to know about her work! When 1 in 6 Texans doesn't have enough to eat, and 190,000 in Travis county ALONE are at risk of hunger (thanks to our friends at Capital Area Food Bank for the stats!), we need more people like Lola fighting the issues of food insecurity in Austin.

Lola's mission is to feed her community, and she is really living that goal by feeding thousands of meals to hungry folks who can't afford to eat in Austin each week. Her restaurant is home base for her daily outreach to the community, feeding whoever comes in, regardless of their ability to pay. Maybe you've seen her in her short yellow school bus (the "Cool Bus"), delivering meals to Austin's east side housing projects. Maybe you've stopped in to eat and seen her serving hungry folks for free out her back door. Or maybe you've seen the place on Sundays, when she closes down the restaurant to serve backyard meals for the community.

Lola cooked us up a hearty meal when we went to visit this week. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Lola learned to cook from her mother - raised in a large family without much money or resources in Lake Charles, LA, good meals were tough to come by and the family relied heavily on prayer to ask for things they needed, like food. Lola's mother taught her to love the art of cooking, and how to make just about anything from scratch, working with what they had. After she moved to Austin, Lola spent a few years in and out of homelessness, living in housing projects like Mason Manor and experiencing first hand the food insecurity that plagues parts of our city.

After a time, Lola was given divine inspiration to build a restaurant with a mission to take care of the community - and the spark of Nubian Queen Lola's Cajun Soul Food was born. Her faith in this mission has defied the odds and brought many helping hands to the project when funds or materials were desperately needed. 11 years ago, with only enough money for first month's rent, she took a leap of faith and signed a lease on Rosewood and Chicon. Soon after, a random act of kindness led to the donation of over $1,000 of kitchen equipment and soon, she was back in the kitchen using those home-cooked, made from scratch skills she learned from her mama..

As the restaurant began doing business, Lola began serving food to the hungry with meals cooked in her restaurant's kitchen - a few meals at first, then more and more. This didn't just affect those receiving her meals, but started to change Lola as well, magnifying her desire to do greater good. Lola wanted to grow her impact, tackle the problem of food insecurity in a bigger way. She also wanted to reach those who couldn't make it to her kitchen - this is where the short yellow bus came into play. Now, Lola takes her bus out into the community 4 days a week, giving away free meals, especially to hungry children, but also to anyone who needs it. Lola estimates that she is preparing and serving 1200-1500 meals each week in the community!!

Bart delivering JBG produce to Lola's. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Opening up this week's boxes. Photo by Scott David Gordon

So what does JBG have to do with Austin's one and only Nubian Queen? Every week, we are proud to help Lola in her mission to feed the hungry in our community. With the help of a farm friend, Bart, we donate lots of produce to Lola once, sometimes twice a week. Seriously, you should see the produce that the woman cooks up! These donations include returns from farmer's markets, "inglorious" veggies (those ugly beets, carrots, etc. that don't get bought) and more. Lola provides an outlet for produce that we can't donate to food banks - sometimes the shelf life on donated produce is so short that if the produce had to sit at the food bank for even a day, it might spoil before it could be used. Lola is always waiting for these deliveries, knife in hand, ready to process the organic veggies sent her way and get them into a meal - and fast. We are so grateful to her for providing this service to our community and ensuring that food is used to feed those in need and not go to waste.

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Lola also receives weekly donations from CSA egg provider Coyote Creek (800-1000 eggs!), and also has protein donations from Tyson Foods, who filmed the short video on Lola below. Want to know what you can do to help? Stop by the restaurant for a meal, and be sure to fill out a donation card on your way out! Enjoy some of the Nubian Queen's Cajun Soul Food and chat with the woman herself - we promise you won't regret it!



Remember, we have lots of ways for you to give organic veggies, and to feed those in need, this holiday season. Donate a share to The Settlement Home through our Sponsored Share program and help us reach our goal of 150 shares to feed children with histories of abuse and neglect. Or if you're as inspired by Lola's mission as we are, we hope you'll look for other ways to give this holiday season. Do you know anyone in your work, school, or church communities who are in need, or would really appreciate our CSA but might not be able to make it work financially right now? Contact the farm about setting them up a CSA subscription or Market Bucks for farmer's markets! We've got loads more gift options available here to make last-minute holiday shopping easy and stress-free.