This story is included in a three-part profile about Chris and Ben Williams. To read the main profile, click here. To read more about Highway Vodka, Ben’s distillery, click here.
Chef Chris Williams is bouncing around the kitchen of the Imani School in Southwest Houston, tending to stations and spotchecking meals. Rows of to-go containers on four large tables display the day’s offering: tilapia in lemon-butter sauce with roasted zucchini, broccoli and onion, on a bed of mashed potatoes.
The meals are destined for six apartment complexes: two in Sunnyside, two in Fifth Ward, one in Acres Homes and one in Third Ward. A team of 10 people do this three days a week for Lucille’s 1913, a new nonprofit Williams launched during the pandemic.
Before this year, Williams spent most of his time running Lucille’s, his Museum District restaurant. Now he’s focused on his newest, most ambitious project. It began in June when chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen offered to partner to feed elderly residents who were cut off from their families. Williams came back energized from his first delivery, at Anna Dupree Terrace in Sunnyside, and became intent on serving ready-to-eat food that he knew the residents would enjoy.
“This isn't giving out ingredients,” he says. “These are thoughtful, chef-driven meals that are considerate of the audience we're targeting.”
They onboarded new apartment buildings and increased meals to 400 a day, delivered five days a week. But after three weeks, World Central Kitchen left Houston, by then in its biggest spike in virus cases. Williams decided to carry on.
At the beginning, he was cooking from 6 a.m. at the Imani School then went straight to Lucille’s after deliveries, working well past midnight. It wasn’t sustainable, and he was operating like a restaurant kitchen. In July, he hired Lawrence Walker, who had been furloughed from the San Luis Resort in Galveston, where he worked banquets. Walker knew how to do volume. He set up a system that allowed Lucille’s 1913 to work efficiently and scale up.
“It was really fulfilling because I was out of work,” Walker says of joining the team. “Then to help feed people who can't get out, or don't have the means to... It feels good to give back to the community."
Instead of using volunteers, Lucille’s 1913 hires and pays people. On a given morning, they cook and prep food for the following day as they plate meals for that day’s delivery. Working with partners such as Chefs’ Produce, Brothers Produce and Captain Fred’s Seafood, Walker and Williams try to provide variety to the residents.
The meals are bagged and marked with their destined apartment building number, then loaded in a 1913-branded van in the route’s exact order. Driving from stop to stop, Williams swiftly unloads the bags and connects with a property manager. Sometimes residents are waiting outside in anticipation.
“Every single day, they're smiling, they're happy,” he says. “It's just a few minutes out of their day, interacting with somebody else who's young and excited and who's there for them."
Lucille’s 1913 focuses on economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Williams grew up in southwest Houston but spent a lot of time in Fifth Ward, where his best friend lived. While driving around the area recently for a meal delivery, he was sad to see that it’s still largely impoverished. By feeding people, he hopes to remove one of their struggles from the equation.
Fifth Ward is also the breeding ground for the next phase of Lucille’s 1913. Williams secured a new kitchen inside Pleasant Hill Village, which he estimates can double the number of meals they serve. He plans to hire directly from the community and train people in culinary skills.
At the back of the complex’s yard, a small, abandoned vegetable garden is overgrown with pigweed — but it won’t be for long. Lucille’s 1913 is partnering with Lettuce Live Farms to replant the garden, giving residents access to fresh produce and incentivizing them to spend time outside. A bandstand-like structure will be a stage for cooking demonstrations and other activities, turning the space into a real community hub.
Williams believes this latest addition will be the most impactful yet. With time, he hopes to have several satellite kitchens across the city. Lucille’s 1913 has served about 70,000 meals to date, and while the team had to cut the frequency down to three days a week, they still do more than 680 meals on delivery days. One day of meal deliveries costs about $1,000; Lucille’s 1913 received nonprofit status in September, officially allowing it to fundraise.
Lucille’s 1913 picks up other missions: feeing voters at the polls with World Central Kitchen or providing meals to local hospitals. Its biggest project will see the light in 2022: the revitalization of the historic Eldorado Ballroom, in partnership with Project Row Houses, the Third Ward-based arts and culture nonprofit.
Built in 1939, the ballroom was a thriving entertainment venue for African-American Houstonians. It closed in the early 1970s, in part because of desegregation’s economic impact on Black-owned businesses, then was gifted to Project Row Houses and reopened in 2003.
The team will soon break ground on a renovation of the ballroom itself, as well as a new cafe spearheaded by Williams, a public outdoor space, an art gallery showcasing African-American art, and a community center.
“Emancipation (Ave), formerly known as Dowling (Street), used to be like the Black Wall Street of Houston,” says Williams. “Now there's this revitalization. It's going full circle.”
emma.balter@chron.com
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Lucille’s initiative to feed seniors is now a nonprofit with a broader vision - Houston Chronicle
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