08/31/2026
This past week, Courville's and our family were honored by the Loula Foundation š
Iām still not quite sure how we measure up to an honor like this.
We are blessed to be part of a community full of really remarkable people doing really remarkable things. Weāre not saving lives. Weāre not performing brain surgery. Weāre just cookinā.
But somewhere along the way, our family business became about a whole lot more than the job itself. It became about what we could do with it. We do food but we also do community, gathering, big love and lots of philanthropy. I often say weāve gotta hustle our small business to feed our āpeopleā habit. We love people, and we love our SETX! In all honestly, I think we wouldnāt still fight the good fight of āsmall businessā if we couldnāt do the things we do in our community. Itās kind of our āwhy.ā
Loula shows up for our community in a much more direct and specialized way - walking beside families through recovery, rebuilding, resources, and reunification! And while the work may look very different, I donāt think our hearts are all that far apart.
At the end of the day, we both believe that people are worth showing up for - especially when life gets hard on āem.
Courvilleās exists because Southeast Texas has supported our family for generations. And because this community has poured into us, weāve been given the opportunity to turn around and pour back into it.
We donāt jump into the things we do because we feel obligated to. We do it because, as humans and as Christians, we believe weāre called to show up for one another. We do the business stuff, so we can do the stuff we truly LOVE, which is showing upā¦.
Because community changes outcomes. š
People rarely make it through the hardest parts of life completely alone, and I think that may be one of the biggest beliefs Loula and our family share.
Loula is creating a support system around people who might otherwise fall through the cracks. Theyāre walking beside people during some of the hardest chapters of their lives and helping them find their way back to stability, back to their families, and in a way, back to a seat at a table that can stand the test of time. (If you know me, then you know I talk about my table often.) š
Somewhere along the way, weāve been given the opportunity to bring all kinds of things to other peopleās tables - sometimes itās food, but sometimes itās community, laughter, friendship, comfort, hope, or simply the reminder that somebody showed up.
In our family, a table has never just been a place where people eat. Itās where people come together. Itās where we celebrate, grieve, laugh, reconnect, forgive, and sometimes begin again. It has been a symbol of hope for us - a big, full table of people that we love and who love us!
And when I look at the work Loula Foundation is doing, I think in many ways thatās exactly what they are helping people do - find their way back to their table. Back to their families. Back to stability. Back to believing that their story isnāt over and there is so much good ahead!
LIFE happens to people. Hard things happen to good people. Bad circumstances can find people with enormous potential. And sometimes what changes the entire direction of someoneās life is simply having somebody willing to stay beside them long enough to remind them that they are still worth fighting for.
What Loula Foundation does is specialized work that our family could never pretend to understand or replicate. But the belief behind that work feels deeply familiar to us.
People matter.
Families matter.
Community matters!!!
And sometimes the greatest thing we can do for another person is simply refuse to give up on them.
To be honored by an organization built on those same beliefs means more to our family than I can really put into words.
Thanks so much to our friends and family who attended this event tonight! We are truly, overwhelmingly blessed in every way possible!
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