Lettum Eat!: Providing Food for the Gwinnett Community

By Kristen Eleveld

You may be surprised to learn that many people are facing food insecurity right here in Gwinnett County. Some community members have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic; others are struggling to find ways to feed their family. No one should have to wonder where their next meal is coming from or choose between paying the light bill or feeding their family, which is why one organization in the Gwinnett area is working hard to feed those who are in need.

Meet Chef Hank, a professional chef in Snellville who has run the gamut of experience in the food service industry in his career of over three decades. Several years after running multiple restaurants and owning his own in the Snellville Community, Chef Hank realized that he could help people who were in need all around him – and he literally took his show on the road.

“I’ve always been strong on community involvement,” says Chef Hank, who has started nonprofit initiatives from youth athletics to after school culinary arts programs throughout the years. “I believe in utilizing my God-given abilities to help others. If I was a mechanic, I would be teaching others to repair cars or fixing up cars for those who couldn’t afford to have it done themselves.”

In 2018, Chef Hank had the opportunity to work at a local church as the executive chef, where he saw a greater opportunity to attract families in the community and inspire them to come and dine as a family. It was then that he realized the outreach potential and the impact that could be made if these efforts were refocused outward and shared with communities all over. The idea for Lettum Eat! was born.

The name itself comes from a phrase that Chef Hank and his coworkers would often say when working in a restaurant kitchen to let a server know that a meal was ready. They would plate the food and call out “Lettum eat!” to signify that the food was ready to give to the customer. Chef Hank decided that phrase was the perfect name to define the intent for the ministry. Mobile food provisions prepared with care and served with compassion to those in need would be the statement of purpose and foundation for the goal he wanted.

The response after launch in late 2019 was immediate. The need was great in not only Chef Hank’s own Snellville community, but all over the Metro Atlanta area.

For nearly four years, Lettum Eat! has operated as a nonprofit 501(c)3. The organization has served over 200,000 meals, and continues to be dedicated to finding those in need and mobilizing the resources necessary to ensure that anyone who is hungry gets to eat. By leveraging partnerships with organizations like the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Gwinnett County Government, and the Gwinnett County Public Library, Chef Hank has successfully built a well-known mechanism of community service. And they aren’t done yet – not even close.

Over the last couple of years, Lettum Eat!, Inc. has added to their fleet and now has a brand new fully equipped food truck, two delivery vehicles, a refrigerated box truck, a refrigerated trailer, a 20-foot competition barbeque smoker and grill, and, most recently, has added a second food truck. In its final phase of development, the organization has purchased three modular classroom trailers that are currently undergoing renovations to be converted into modular production kitchens, or MPKs. These MPKs will serve as free meal-producing hubs for people in areas throughout the county or wherever there is a need.

The MPKs will feature free meal delivery via common platforms like UberEats and Grubhub, as well as pickup and carryout options.

While the primary purpose of the MPKs is to produce meals, Chef Hank is excited about using them in other ways. He envisions the MPKs as being the centerpiece for local market events in order to bring help to struggling communities while also supporting and promoting local small businesses and local farmers in the area. In the meantime, Lettum Eat! will continue their two platforms of service with Chef-Prepared Frozen Meals that are distributed weekly by the Gwinnett County Public Library at multiple branches and the organization’s Food Truck Feeding Tours initiative, where they serve sandwiches to children after school, hot meals at extended stay motels, and unsheltered individuals with Trinity Table at Trinity United Methodist Church in Atlanta on many Sundays.

For Chef Hank, the mission is simple: make good food, get the food where it needs to go, serve it with compassion and dignity to eliminate the hopelessness that is often associated with need, and love on the peo-

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