Isaac & Amanda Toups
Founders | Toups Family Meal
Children’s TV legend Mister Rogers loved to share a piece of advice his mother used to give him as a kid when he would see something scary on the news: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
In the early days of the pandemic, when their industry shut down, chef Isaac and Amanda Toups became those helpers to tens, and then hundreds, and then thousands of people — serving meals to first their own staff, and then to anyone who needed it.
“People who weren’t in the industry started reaching out, and they were saying, ‘Look, my kids have nothing. You don’t have to feed me, but feed my kids,’” said Amanda Toups, who said the pandemic really opened her eyes to the level of food insecurity in the city. “It really was within five to seven days that the cupboards were bare in New Orleans.”
As people were able to return to work, the need slowed, and so did the couple’s efforts, but not before they had fed more than 100,000 of their neighbors.
But then, in the spring of 2024, news broke that Gov. Jeff Landry was refusing national funds to help feed Louisiana’s children over the summer. Although the funds were eventually accepted, Amanda Toups noted that when she found out the funding amounted to just $1 a meal, she realized they had to do something.
So, the couple behind the award-winning Toups Meatery restaurant — Isaac has been a finalist four times for James Beard “Best Chef: South” awards — officially launched their own 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Toups Family Meal (TFM).
“In one of the best food cities in the world, one in three of our children are sitting below the poverty line, and that is absolutely unacceptable,” said Amanda Toups, who said the couple soon realized that transportation insecurity is just as large of a problem in the city. As such, the meals would have to be delivered to children’s homes.
Thanks to a small army of volunteer drivers, TFM made it happen.
“We took on 533 New Orleans children, across almost 200 homes, across 45 routes and between June 6 and Aug. 16, we delivered 70,500 meals,” she noted.
TFM’s work didn’t stop there. For Halloween, 600 pumpkins and 1,200 pizzas were delivered to area children. For Thanksgiving, 1,600 New Orleanians were fed. The year ended with a Christmas dinner drive.
Looking ahead, the Toupses are just getting started. TFM has reached capacity working out of the restaurant’s kitchen, so the couple hopes to build their own facility which will enable them to go from feeding 1,000 people at a time to 10,000.
No matter what lies ahead, they say the focus will remain on the kids.
“As Isaac and I say, if you love New Orleans, then you better love our kids,” said Amanda Toups. “And that’s what this all boils down to, we love our children.”
