Short documentary of Lola Stephens-Bell, owner and operator of the Cajun restaurant Nubian Queen Lola in Austin, Texas.
Lola opened her restaurant after being homeless, and now gives back to the community by feeding children at the Mason Manor projects every weekday, as well as feeding homeless people every Sunday both at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless and at her own restaurant.

Video by: Guillermo Hernandez Martinez
Additional footage by: Jonathan Damrich
Editing by: Guillermo Hernandez Martinez & Jonathan Damrich

If you would like to help Lola you can find out how on her volunteer page.

If you haven’t had a basket of my delicious Cajun soul food onion rings you probably also haven’t sat in a porch swing feeling a cool autumn breeze, or read a book you couldn’t put down, or went for a lazy unscheduled drive through the country. You may not have time for any of those things but you can make time to have a basket of this today. Come in and see me!

image via Kent

For lunch or dinner tomorrow you should come on in for a delicious plate of fried catfish, red beans and rice, bread, and greens. We’ll leave the hot sauce out on the table and you just take your time indulging yourself with some mouth watering cajun goodness.

image via Kent

Lola and her kitchen was featured in Austin Chronicle’s article, “The Hands That Feed.”

“My mama used to say: ‘If ya sick, give me a fish. There’s something about a fish.’ Jesus healed a lot of people with fish,” says Lola Stephens-Bell, aka Nubian Queen Lola, whose Eastside Cajun Soul Food Kitchen has been serving her deliciously soul-stirring concoctions not just to paying customers but to the homeless and the hungry since 2003.

“Fish is a healing piece of food. Try me! You find somebody real sick, and I don’t care if they’re on a feeding tube: If you can put a little piece of fish in their mouth, just the meat on it, watch. You gonna see a little change.” She stands up, washes her hands, and checks on today’s special brewing in the kitchen: crawfish étouffée. “Give them some fish, and love that fish,” she says as she stirs. “Watch what happens. They’re gonna start perkin’ up, feelin’ better. It’s just a fact.”