Lucille's 1913 was founded by Chef Chris Williams during the pandemic initially to provide meals to frontline workers in the nearby medical center. Lucille's shifted their services to include vulnerable seniors and children. Chris was able to increase meal distribution to include Houston’s elderly community at which point he founded Lucille’s 1913 to expand his reach and the scope of his mission. A partnership with Imani School and the commercial kitchen inside the property at 12401 South Post Oak, meant that Lucille’s began providing nearly 700 meals daily to underserved communities in Sunnyside, Acres Homes, Fifth Ward and Third Ward as well daily meals to students in five schools across the region. Chris always envisioned providing meals as a necessity for disaster response and wanted to provide more than a meal, but an opportunity for sustainability through culturally connected food. This expanded Lucille’s 1913's reach to create gardens in communities across Greater Houston and later farming in the Ft. Bend County community of Kendleton. Lucille’s is continuing to grow its footprint to support culinary and cultural arts in Third Ward where they are the tenant and manager at The Eldorado Ballroom, including a restaurant, nonprofit community arts space as well as a garden bridging culture, arts, food and community engagement.
CONSCIOUS
Mimicking his restaurant’s ethos, Lucille’s 1913 also pays homage to Chef Chris’ great grandmother and culinary pioneer, Lucille B. Smith. In 1913, as the nation was celebrating “Jubilee Year” — the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation — the restaurant’s namesake Lucille B. Smith was giving birth to her catering business in Fort Worth, Texas. This endeavor enabled Smith to raise funds for community service projects and advocacy initiatives. Lucille’s 1913 was born out of this same love of community. In turn, we provide curated meals that directly speak to the unique palates of the communities we serve, while providing the much-needed daily nutrition they deserve.
COMMUNITY
Our investment in the communities we serve is not only deliberate, but holistic. In addition to providing wholesome meals, we care creating a sustainable infrastructure that includes culture, culinary arts and horticulture training; farming and food processing resources; and accessible food waste solutions.
COLLECTIVE
Lucille’s 1913 is proud to team up with other non-profit and for-profit organizations to achieve our collective goal of helping the community.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we partnered with local bars throughout Houston to create the Lucille’s 1913 Pop-Up Program, a weekly Thursday night event on the patio at Lucille’s. Our efforts provided more than $42,000 for out-of-work Houston-area bartenders over a three-month span. We also joined forces with Chris Shepherd’s One Fifth and Benjamin Berg’s B.B. Lemon to implement the pop-up program at other heralded restaurants in our city. We hosted a voter registration drive from our community kitchen at The Power Center in Southwest Houston, and our next big initiative is to provide 1,000 holiday meals for 5,000 families in December – all while continuing to feed 686 meals per day to under-served communities in Sunnyside, Acres Homes, Fifth Ward and Third Ward Houston.
OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
Dedication. Expertise. Passion.
