On his first day at D’s Soul Food Cafe, a combination restaurant, food pantry and youth mentorship program, Iberville eighth grader Steven Adams felt nervous.
He wanted to improve his social skills, customer service and, of course, soul-food cooking, but he knew next to no one at the cafe. That was daunting.
Once the work got started, from serving food to chatting with customers to packaging food boxes for community members in need, he stopped feeling scared.
“As soon as I came in here, right to work, right to business,” Adams said. “As soon as we got done with work, it was just talking, meeting new people.”
That’s the philosophy behind D’s Soul Food Cafe on Railroad Avenue in Plaquemine, where the nonprofit GUMBO — Global United Mission Benefitting Ourselves and Others — operates. Deborah Dickerson started the cafe and mentorship system to provide kids, in essence, a third place. The cafe is somewhere they can go outside of school and home to build relationships with their peers, interact with the community through service and develop an array of skills to carry with them to future jobs.
Perhaps most importantly, every kid leaves with a free, home-cooked meal.
“I know, if you give a kid a good meal, he’s coming in,” Dickerson said.
From the military to mentorship
Dickerson never imagined herself staying in the United States, let alone founding a youth mentorship program in Plaquemine. After being discharged from the Army, she planned to be a missionary. Somewhere along the way, she “fell in love” with the people of Iberville Parish, she said.
“I didn’t think I’d be coming to Plaquemine to be a missionary,” Dickerson said. “But that’s what happened.”
She ran a trial version of the GUMBO initiative in 2015, but she was mostly focused on keeping the lights on in the cafe, which “sells” meals as donations to the food bank, she said.
Last year, Dickerson began publicizing the mentorship component of the program. She teaches the kids communication and customer service skills and works to keep them on track in school. She encourages them to come do their homework and bring their friends to the cafe.
“Everyone deserves an outlet,” Dickerson said. “It also stops them from going home and being raised by cybermedia.”
Dickerson partners with the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to stock the food pantry. The kids volunteering will box the food and deliver it to patrons’ cars. They also help out in the kitchen and learn the essentials of preparing soul food.
The volunteers receive a small weekly stipend and gifts for occasions like Christmas or the beginning of a new school year. This year, they wanted fresh tennis shoes, Dickerson said.
She ensures the operation stays small, around 10 kids, so she can give each child personal attention. Most of the kids are in middle school or high school. The youngest, Emersen Pugh, is in second grade.
Pugh said his favorite meal he’s learned how to cook is pork chops.
“It’s a great place to eat at,” he said, smiling.
Alice Jenkins, Pugh’s grandma, accompanies the second grader to his volunteer shifts. She said working at D’s Cafe is an empowering experience for the kids.
“It’s really pushed them to know that they can do more than they think they can do,” Jenkins said.
‘A great legacy’
Dickerson said she was inspired to become an advocate for kids during her time volunteering in children’s shelters and working in prisons in South Carolina. She watched children who experienced trauma at home end up in the justice system, rather than receiving the support they needed.
“It’s hard to get out of a situation like that,” Dickerson said. “It’s a repeated pattern.”
She also pours her love for her mother and for God into the work that she does at GUMBO daily. She described her mom as the type of person whose door was always open for her community.
“If she was here, I think she would be the one overseeing GUMBO,” Dickerson said. “To be back in the hometown that she lived in, and for people to walk up and say, ‘I remember your mom,’ it’s a good feeling.”
The kids cooking inside the cafe, getting to know their neighbors and helping those in need — that’s all part of her mother’s legacy.
“It’s a great legacy to live out,” Dickerson said.