Feeding Hope

Chapter 3The Spark

The spark for Goodr came long before I ever knew what it would become. I had been feeding people experiencing homelessness in Atlanta for nearly four years before the idea even crossed my mind. I called it Sunday Soul ATL, and it started as a simple act of service—cooking home‐style meals and sharing them with people who needed them most.

Then one day, a 15‐second video of my work went viral. I opened Facebook to find millions of views, comments, and friend requests. Someone had shared a short clip of one of our events with the caption: “Look what these people did for the homeless in Atlanta.” By the time I saw it, the post had been shared thousands of times.

What struck me most wasn't the attention; it was the comments. Over and over again, people kept asking the same question: “Who donated the food?” The truth was … no one did.

For years, I had couponed and price‐matched every meal we served. I used to joke that I was probably the reason Walmart stopped price‐matching, because I'd show up with a stack of grocery circulars and get everything I needed in one trip. Occasionally, I'd get donations from a local food bank, but when I received a citation for feeding people in a parking lot, they told me they could no longer support me.

Still, I didn't want to stop. I couldn't. So I kept buying the food myself.

Funny enough, years later after Goodr had launched and the same video went viral again, that very food bank wrote me saying, “You should've just reached ...