CLEVELAND — Whether it’s a face mask or food, Barbara Bradford-Williams has her community covered.
She’s the owner of JB Grill Soul Food in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood.
“I have a business here. I went to school here and I kind of grew up in this neighborhood,” Bradford-Williams said.
Many people in this neighborhood grew up eating her family’s food. Her grandfather owned Bradford’s Soul Food in the 1980s and passed down recipes that keep this community coming back.
“We have the soulful, our famous oxtails, meatloaf, beef short ribs,” she said.
Last spring, after seeing the toll the coronavirus pandemic was taking on this area and its children, she started offering some of the food for free. Soon after, she launched JB Lunch and Literacy, which provides weekly giveaways that include meals, books and other essentials.
Just a few steps away from her restaurant is the Lunch and Literacy Safe Zone, a space she rents for kids to eat that food, read those books and just be kids.
Over a year into the coronavirus pandemic, Bradford-Williams said it’s the community support and donations that have sustained her efforts to make life a little easier for these families.
“This space right here is for them and they can come anytime they want,” she said.
Going back and forth between her restaurant and the Lunch and Literacy Safe Zone is more than a full-time job.
But Bradford-Williams said there’s nothing else she’d rather spend her time doing.
“I don’t know where I get my energy from. I just thank God that he gave it to me because this is the type of work that I love doing. I love (the) community. I love kids. I love people. I just love everything that I do right now.”
For more information on the JB Lunch and Literacy program, click here to visit the JB Grill Soul Food website.
