Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Tillman-Young.
Mary Tillman-Young is the founder of Meals Are Love. Mary was born in New Jersey and grew up between Maryland and the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis. Mary’s cooking combines the flavors of Caribbean, American, Filipino, and many other recipes that were shared through the love of people and culture throughout her life. Mary truly believes that the secret to a delicious meal lies with the love that it is prepared with. Meals Are Love was created to connect people of all backgrounds to food that is both delicious and nutritious. Through meal prep, catering and a personal chef service, Mary is passionate about connecting all people, regardless of their socioeconomic background, to quality food. At Meals Are Love we fight for equality, and strive to serve our community at reasonable prices that provide equitable access to quality food. We believe that everyone deserves good food, and we are committed to using whole ingredients to serve whole people and touch whole hearts.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As you can imagine, launching a business within a pandemic has had many challenges. One of the biggest obstacles has been finding safe ways to provide our free meals to community members. Fortunately, we have been able to partner with other community organizations to safely find ways to get whole meals to the community. This includes providing meals at The Bridge Homeless shelter and 4 The Culture studio.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My professional career outside of Meals Are Love is centered in non-profit management. I work for a low-income housing organization that helps low-income families and families transitioning from homelessness by providing affordable housing and on-site services. In my role, I support our NTX locations and the educational programming. I am most proud of the opportunity I have every single day to build relationships with people in the community and work together to provide equitable access to services and opportunities for adults and children to thrive. From food pantries to free Afterschool programs, I work alongside awesome teams to provide services to support the success of adults and children in the community.
My work in the community with my day job is a huge part of the inspiration behind Meals Are Love. I can’t tell you how many times I have had the privilege of listening to stories of community members over a meal shared together and learned of the impact a meal has had on their life when they needed it most. Meals have a way of bringing together people of diverse backgrounds to share pieces of themselves and their community through bites of food that carry incredible heritage and provide comfort and hope for the future. This is why for every single meal purchased, Meals Are Love donates a meal of the exact same quality. We are committed to incorporating diverse cuisines, specifically highlighting the heritage of the fusion of cultures represented right here in Dallas. We are most proud of this commitment and the opportunity to celebrate our community in this way.
How do you think about luck?
Personally, I don’t believe in luck, but I do believe that God connects all of the intricate pieces of our lives to create the impact we have on the world. I am fortunate to have the diverse background that I do physically and professionally and know that it has impacted my life and my ability to serve others. From living in a third-world country, to serving in marginalized communities and being fluent in Spanish, every experience I have had has helped me in my ability to serve others and my community. Meals Are Love has always been my dream, but the silver lining of the pandemic is it gave me the opportunity to bring it to life. Because people were primarily at home and for a while, and weren’t even able to frequent restaurants, there was a huge desire for at-home entertainment and catering.
My priority was to highlight the impact of food insecurity as schools were closed and community centers had limited capacity to serve. As a result, there was an increase in food insecurity for children and adults and I believed that Meals are Love could be part of the solution. I was able to begin doing in-home catering for clients, and using the profits to our right back into the community meals provided. Then when local government allowed, we began doing pop-up events and were able to increase sales and serve the community even more. Every meal purchased is a meal given and we couldn’t be more thankful for the support of the Dallas community.
Contact Info:
- Email: MealsAreLove@gmail.com
- Website: www.MealsAreLove.com
- Instagram: MealsAreLove
- Facebook: MealsAreLove
