Episode 229: Home-Delivered Meals and Food Dignity
About the Podcast
Today, Clancy speaks with Amanda Toups, Founder and CEO of Toups Family Meal. Amanda shares how a small act during the pandemic turned into a citywide effort to fight hunger. You won’t want to miss their discussion, not only about food insecurity but also the challenges of transportation and access.
About Amanda Toups
Amanda Toups co-founded the acclaimed New Orleans restaurant Toups Meatery with Chef Isaac Toups in 2012. In 2020, they launched Toups Family Meal to feed displaced service industry workers and quickly expanded to serve anyone in need. Today, the nonprofit focuses on bridging the gap in childhood hunger. In 2024 alone, they delivered more than 80,000 meals to children in New Orleans.
Discussion Takeaways
- Toups Family Meal began in March 2020, serving laid-off restaurant staff, and within days grew to feeding hundreds in the community.
- A partnership with World Central Kitchen allowed the team to distribute over 100,000 meals during the height of the pandemic.
- Transportation was a major barrier to food access, and there is a need to shift to home delivery.
- Hunger is not about laziness or neglect. It is about the working poor facing impossible choices between food, bills, and childcare.
- Food dignity means food sovereignty. It is the stability of knowing where your next meal comes from without fear, shame, or sacrifice.
#1 tip to improve access to healthy food
Food insecurity isn’t just about access — in New Orleans, transportation is a barrier too. That’s why we decided the solution had to be delivering food straight to people’s homes.
Each week on the Food Dignity® Podcast, the Food Dignity® Movement's Clancy Harrison hosts a wide variety of hunger experts and other people making changes on the frontlines. Join us as we dive deep into conversations that will change the way you think about food insecurity.
Listen to our trailer!
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