Young chefs dish up, deliver blessings for Thanksgiving
Families receive meals youths put together over weekend
young chefs started brining 36 turkeys weighing 12 to 14 pounds each a week ago in equal parts water, salt and sugar.
They gathered food and ingredients Friday for their selected recipes. On Sunday, the savory smell of sage and spices filled the kitchen. Shouts of “Coming through!” rang through the space as volunteers carried turkeys to trays.
There was Myara Kirby, 11, whom family members called a “miracle” for surviving a hit-and-run accident six years ago. There was Victoria Taylor, 10, clad in a white chef’s coat, who found her focus through cooking. And there were 14year-old twins Addison and Allyssa Williams, who honed culinary skills they learned from their father, Chef Milas Williams.
The past, present and future junior chefs under Williams’ tutelage spent more than 40 hours over the weekend at Anne Marie Catering preparing 400 servings of holiday food. The meals would be delivered to 37 families in need as part of the sixth annual Youth Empowerment Thanksgiving Dinner hosted by nonprofit World Lolei, which stands for Loyalty Over Liberty Equals Integrity.
Sides included 60 of sweet potatoes, 70 pounds of green beans, 300 servings of corn on the cob, 200 pounds of dressing and 120 pounds of cranberry dressing.
Nikki Neumeyer, 35, supervised the young chefs as they prepared a white gravy for a green bean casserole. Tyanice Stanton, 17, the executive junior chef, and Zuriah Daniels, 12, helped Keona Armstrong, 38, chop onthe ions and bell peppers. Stanton also made sure stations were clean and that the chefs weren’t getting frustrated working near the hot ovens.
Myara and Victoria, both executive junior sous chefs, worked station to station. As Victoria mixed sweet potatoes, Williams offered her a bit of advice — to not mush them so that he could see fluff and volume in the mixture.
Six years ago, the hit-andrun nearly dashed young Myara’s dream of becoming a chef.
Myara recalled selling fried fish plates in a tent with her grandmother on W.W. White Road when a car swerved from the street, jumped the curb and struck her grandmother and small cousin. Myara was dragged behind the vehicle.
Tiara Harris, 32, Myara’s mom, said first responders had to revive her nephew. Myara suffered minor injupounds
ries to her knees.
“Yes,” Harris said, “it was a big miracle.”
When Harris saw a post for Williams’ junior chef competition in July, she signed up Myara for the last spot.
Myara won first place in the competition, and Williams said it was rewarding to see her potential evolve.
“When it started, I got the hang of it,” Myara said. “It felt really good.”
Before leaving on their deliveries Monday, the chefs and mentors gathered in a prayer circle. Williams led the prayer with a reminder that families were still struggling in the days of the coronavirus. Their effort, he said, would offer a moment of relief.
“We want to bring smiles to children’s faces,” he said. “We want to show kids that the parents reached out and we were available because God invested in us, and we were willing vessels.”
With a collective shout of “one, two, three, let’s go junior chefs!” the group left at 2 p.m. to deliver the meals.
Williams drove a white passenger van at the front of the seven-car convoy that touched San Antonio’s 10 City Council districts. He took one of four delivery routes from the South Texas Medical Center area, through downtown to the East Side to the Northeast Side.
Melyiah Adams received the first delivery by the junior chefs at her North Side apartment Monday afternoon. Several young girls greeted the mother of two, bearing foil-covered aluminum pans filled with a bounty of traditional dishes.
“It’s a blessing,” said Adams, 24. “They’re making Thanksgiving for me and my kids.”
Near the city’s center, Cynthia Roy, 50, was moved by the kind gesture. She said a shoulder and neck injury made it hard for her to prepare a holiday dinner this year.
“I’m very thankful they were willing to help me,” Roy said, “and I was able to receive help from them.”
They stopped near Loop 410 and Vance Jackson, where they delivered several meals to Eliea Cano, 53, her husband and four children.
“Everything is going up so high — it’s hard,” she said as her husband carried stacked pans to their home.
Near downtown, Eashonne Wolford, 51, was thankful because of the youngsters’ “helping hands.”
“My hats are off to y’all,” she said. “There’s still good people out here. This means you’re going to be top notch. Much love to you young ladies.”
In 2015, Williams’ nonprofit hosted its first formal sit-down Thanksgiving dinner at Anne Marie Catering to offer children time to communicate with family, practice table manners and hear encouraging words from motivational youth speakers. In the second year, the group made meals for 400 people and fed 677 children and parents. On their third outing, they began reserving seats at the dinner.
“It was just a vision,” Williams said. “No one believed that there was actually a Thanksgiving dinner without paper plates and carved turkey.”
Because of COVID-19 safety protocols, this was the second year they delivered Thanksgiving dinners to families. The event is one of the outreach projects for the nonprofit founded by Williams, his brother Detrick and Athena Williams in 2014.
The dinner’s sponsors include Anne Marie Catering, Prince Hall Masonic Hall affiliates of San Antonio, Oak Hills Tavern, Austin Frey of T.O. Outfitters and the Archer family of the Double A Ranch in Uvalde.
The nonprofit also sponsors a Christmas shopping spree, a junior chef competition and pandemic relief for families in financial need. In addition, Chef Williams has hosted a “Recipe for Life” course with the Bexar County juvenile probation program.
In December, Williams will be honored with the Alamo Area Council of Governments Regional Citizen of the Year Award for philanthropy.
Williams himself has benefited from redemption. In the 1990s, he was part of an East Side gang and sentenced to 25 years in prison for aggravated robbery at age 19. Then culinary classes unlocked a new path and reignited the love of cooking that he’d had since childhood. Released after 15 years, he found help from mentors such as Ruben Luna, a managing partner at Anne Marie Catering.
Williams shared his plans with Luna about youths not following in his footsteps. The dinner was a way to give youngsters the chances he wasn’t afforded as a teen.
“I thought that it was an honorable endeavor,” said Luna, 56. “We didn’t want him to not be able to succeed because he didn’t have people support him. You can’t be a true second-chance employer if you don’t support your employees in their life’s ambitions and desires.”
Detrick Williams said it’s an overwhelming feeling to be part of a building block for the young chefs who participate in the humanitarian program.
“It’s a sense of joy,” said Detrick Williams, 38. “A lot of times, we didn’t have anything, and people stepped up and helped us. It’s always a (good) feeling to our souls to give back.”
At sundown, the convoy had made its way to the Northeast Side. The chefs carried the last dinner into Rhonda White’s home, where a singer’s rendition of the spiritual “Wade Through the Water,” echoed from a television.
White, 41, shared with the chefs her own tale of overcoming struggles. She was a teenage mother of six, living in a rough environment, tangled in vices of the area. White persevered and is now a licensed cosmetologist. But even during the troubled times, she also prepared meals for the less fortunate.
“It makes me feel good to see children be positive,” she said. “And wanting to help people is so special. For them to prepare this many meals for so many families is awesome.”
Outside, Williams thanked the group for their days of commitment. “The world is a blank page,” he said. “We in our lives are the pen, and we write our own script to life.”
His daughters sidled beside him in the van as the members of the convoy dispersed and went their separate ways. Williams’ last stop was on the West Side, on Frio Street, where they handed a dozen extra dinners to the homeless.