blue dots background image

Uncategorized

Remembering Leah Chase

“On that stove I cooked for Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, and Thurgood Marshall” Leah Chase told us while pointing to the stove, tragically covered in thick black mud and sludge in her iconic New Orleans restaurant in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina. It is one of my most vivid memories of her. Chef and civil rights and social justice champion, Leah Chase died over the weekend at 96.  Thanks to Share Our Strength, her stove did not stay covered in mud for long.

As part of our commitment to bearing witness, Chuck Scofield, Amy Zganjar, and Ashley Graham led our colleagues in planning numerous trips to New Orleans in the months and years after the destruction wrought by Katrina.  One such trip was designed for the board of the Timberland boot company on which I served.  It was that day that Mrs. Chase showed us the stove and I’ll never forget my Timberland board colleague Ken Lombard walking out to the van, getting out his phone, and calling Starbucks and the NAACP and raising $175,000 to help finish cleaning, restoring, and re-opening the restaurant.

Her obituary, which references this, will better acquaint you with Leah Chase as a remarkable and inspirational culinary and social change legend.  https://tinyurl.com/y2jjnnd6

Related News

Baby Brain Development
22 April 2024
Release

RELEASE: Share Our Strength Provides Key Funding to State-Based Advocates to Support Food Security Policy Initiatives for Children and Families

Medicaid Food Security Network Addresses Food and Nutrition Insecurity with an Emphasis On Closing the Enrollment Gap in SNAP and...

Jeremiah Program: Baltimore Center
09 April 2024
Story

Helping Kids by Helping Single Moms

Can you imagine how far kids could go if their moms weren’t worried about affording groceries or paying the rent?...

young children shareourstrength.org
14 March 2024
Release

RELEASE: Share Our Strength Unveils Groundbreaking Investment of $6.7 Million to Advance Economic Mobility for Single Mothers and Their Children

Initiative to Address Root Causes of Food Insecurity and Financial Instability Through Partnerships with 28 Organizations [Media: For photos and...