Cancer survivor, nonprofit owner asking community for help to continue feeding children in Athens

Johnson's personal experience of living in low-income areas and her desire to feed children a hot meal began when she was a child.

Since the age of three, Johnson grew up in a single family home after her father passed away. Her mother was a full-time nurse and didn't always have time to cook a warm meal so Johnson would go to a local community center to eat.

At the community center, Johnson experience cold sandwiches and at times, spoiled food. She promised herself that if she ever got the opportunity to give children food, it would be a hot home-made meal.

In 2011, she quit her job of 25 years in the child care field to dedicate her time to feeding hungry children across Texas. 

"I worked for the state with programs that fed hungry schoolchildren across cities in Texas and some cities offer food programs but others did not," Johnson said.

Johnson said she realized Athens was a city that didn't offer children food programs when students were out of school. 

Athens is a rural town that doesn't have a YMCA or a community center that provides food. According to the 2022 census, the percentage of the population living in poverty in Athens is 24.3%. 

This made her think about her past experience as a child and she took the initiative to built a kitchen to prepare food for a feeding program in Athens.

The Soul Kitchen was created out of a need to cook and bake fresh food to deliver in Athens.

This fast food restaurant isn't just a prepping place for the Feeding Kids Right program but it also offers the community home-made meals during the school year.

"While students are in school, my small business is opened to the community and I save the proceeds of the restaurant for the program to feed children in the summer and holidays," Johnson explained. 

She only caters on the weekends to bring in additional income on the side. Johnson's full attention is dedicated to her feeding program until the students return to school for a new year.

"I have a full blown kitchen that I cook only hot meals in, no cold meals or cold sandwiches," Johnson said. "The children eat anything from pasta to chicken to veggies. And yes, they enjoy eating anything I cook because I cook with sugar, butter and love."

Johnson wakes up every weekday at 2 a.m. and travels 1.5 hours from Fort Worth to Athens to cook the meals. 

"I live in Fort Worth, I leave my home every morning about 2:30 to get down here by 4:15 to start cooking the meals, because I want the meals to be hot and fresh," Johnson explained. "And I go shopping just about every day to make sure that we have something different. I try not to repeat nothing because I like the kids to be surprised."

Whether she has volunteers to help her or does it all by herself, the children count on her for hot-meals every week. 

Johnson said she typically has four volunteers but at this moment she has two high school volunteers, Jason Hansen and Aidan Charre, who help her prep the food, stock the food truck and help deliver the food in neighborhoods.

"With the help of these guys, it has really been easier for me because I'm a colon cancer survivor. I have bad days and good days," Johnson said.

A couple of years ago, Johnson was diagnosed with colon cancer and this didn't prevent her from helping others. She went to her medicial treatments and is now in remission. Johnson said she is thankful to be better so she can continue to help feed the hungry.

"At the beginning of this summer I was in radiation and without the help of my volunteers, the feeding program wouldn't be providing 150 to 200 meals a day," Johnson said.

And before Johnson honks the horn, children know the 'The Food Lady' has arrived with her recognizable purple 'meals on wheels' food truck.

"It's a 'Meals on Wheels' for children and if they don't hear the horn blowing, then we'll get out and knock on their doors," Johnson said.

Hansen and Charre have experienced the impact Johnson's feeding program has on the community.

"During my first day working with her, it was just so brightening to me to see all those kids smile and run to her truck after she honks the horn," Charee said. "And it's just sad. Because now that funding is dying, it's giving us a rough time, especially for her. I think it just brightens her day up as well...she realizes 'I just helped a bunch of kids with a hot meal."

Now, Johnson is facing another challenge. Due to a lack of funding, she was forced to shutdown Feeding Kids Right which has prevented her from feeding children for the rest of the summer in Athens.

"Unfortunately, our last day of feeding (has come). It's really sad. I love feeding the kids, but due to funding, we have to end this program, but I'm hoping to make a comeback," Johnson said. 

On June 29 was the last day Johnson and her volunteers were able to fill children's stomachs with a hot meal.

"It really has had a good impact on the community, especially the children in a low income areas. They look forward to seeing me all the time that they're supposed to see me and so for me not to be able to finish out the full summer it's gonna be kind of hard and sad," Johnson said.

Many of these children and families rely on this program. Parents now have to stress about providing their children with meals through the day unlike when Johnson's program was active, the parents only had to focus on dinner.

"I have already been stopped by a parent (who) asked me why we're stopping the program," Johnson said. "I told them if I get funding then I will start back up July 10 and finish feeding the kids through the summer like I planned to."

Hansen said he really loves feeding the kids and having to end the program in the middle of summer will be hard for them. But he has hope it will come back and he will be able to feed more kids right.

"I'm hoping that it can turn around for funding to start back coming in. So I could continue to do what God has put me on this earth to do. This is my ministry, and I really want to continue to keep doing it, but I can't do it without the funding," Johnson said.

For more information on volunteering and donations to the Feeding Kids Right program, visit the website here.