Three leaders bringing people together through food

As you gather around the table with loved ones for your Thanksgiving feast, we’d like you to meet three leaders who are making a difference in their community through a simple, yet powerful, act of kindness: a hot meal. From rural Kentucky to the South Side of Chicago, we hope these stories inspire you to take action to help someone in your community, no matter how big or how small it may seem.

Mother-daughter duo Margo and Ayisha Strotter believe that people shouldn’t have to leave their neighborhood to access tasty and fresh food. That's why they opened the Ain't She Sweet Cafe in the Bronzeville and Beverly neighborhoods in Chicago, which features nothing but healthy, tasty, and affordable options on the menu. We recommend the Caribbean jerk chicken wrap!

Nearby, Michael Airhart is making sure Chicagoans experiencing homelessness can enjoy a hot meal every day of the year, rain or shine. His initiative, Taste for the Homeless, is doing its part to feed and care for people across the city of Chicago.

After moving back to Danville, Kentucky, to support her parents, Rochelle Bayless noticed a huge gap between people who were able to access healthy food in her community and those who were not. Grounded in the belief that every person has a right to locally sourced, healthy food, Rochelle started a pay-what-you-can community cafe to offer people "a hand up, not a hand out."

If any of these stories remind you of someone in your community who is doing meaningful work for others, please tell us about them here (Opens in a new tab). Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at the Obama Foundation!