MeikMeals

08/26/2026

08/26/2026

Andddd we are BACK for PERIOD POOH 2026 🪷

Last year, we welcomed 25 girls and their parents to our very first Period Pooh Party in Knoxville — creating a space where girls could ask questions, learn about their changing bodies, and begin conversations about menstruation without shame or embarrassment. 💗

This year, we’re coming back bigger, more intentional, and more expansive — nearly tripling our reach! 💗

While registration for this year’s event is officially CLOSED due to building capacity, we’re sharing Period Pooh with the community because the conversation is one that deserves to be seen, heard, and continued.

At The Lotus Program Experience, we believe that health equity begins with education, access, affirmation, and the confidence to understand your own body. 🌺

This year’s Period Pooh experience brings together period education, body literacy, body positivity, confidence-building, healthy living, creativity, sisterhood, and fun — giving girls ages 8–16 an afternoon designed to help them feel informed, empowered, and proud of who they are becoming.

From period & body education and our empowering Aunts Panel, to crafts, healthy food, ice cream, line dancing, and more — we’re creating an experience that reminds girls that learning about their bodies can be joyful, affirming, and community-centered. 💕✨

And we’re talking about the issues that matter. We are so grateful to every parent, partner, educator, volunteer, and community member helping us grow this movement. 🌺

Period Pooh is more than a party. It’s a conversation. It’s education. It’s empowerment. And it’s a reminder that our girls deserve to grow up knowing that their bodies are worthy of understanding, care, and celebration.

🔗 Our Community Wishlist needs some support + if you’re feeling called and are able we are grateful for your support 💗

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/SAZ6TOUY79HY?ref_=wl_share

cc: Eva Kyle

07/02/2026

Returning to the Motherland—again with purpose. This work has always remained beyond Tennessee 🇬🇭

There are moments that feel deeply aligned, and this yet again is one of them.

I’m honored to share that I’ve been selected as a member of the 2026 SEED Exchange Cohort with REPRA Health.

As a womb practitioner, postpartum doula, healer, and community health equity champion, I’ve dedicated my work to supporting women and families through some of life’s most sacred transitions. This opportunity allows me to take that work beyond borders as I return to Ghana—the Motherland—to learn, listen, and grow alongside fellow birth workers, public health leaders, researchers, entrepreneurs, and community changemakers.

Over eight days, we’ll travel across three regions of Ghana, engaging with healthcare institutions, traditional and cultural leaders, community organizations, and local innovators to explore collaborative approaches to advancing maternal health and reproductive justice.

I believe healing has always lived within our communities. There is so much wisdom rooted in African birth traditions, postpartum care, and community-centered healing practices that deserve to be honored, preserved, and shared. I am humbled by the opportunity to learn from those who have carried these traditions for generations while offering my own experiences in service and solidarity.

My journey has never been arriving as an expert—but returning as a student.

It’s about reconnecting with ancestral knowledge, building relationships across the African diaspora, and strengthening the collective work toward healthier pregnancies, safer births, thriving postpartum experiences, and reproductive justice for Black women and families everywhere.

As always, I carry my community with me as I make this journey, and I look forward to bringing home the lessons, stories, and connections that will continue to shape my practice and the way I SERVE.

Thank you to REPRA Health for this incredible opportunity. This journey this time around is extra special with the World Cup. We return to Lotus HQ July 12th. 💗

YENKO! 🇬🇭🤎

-Naa Nyerley🐚

06/26/2026

The Lotus Program Experience is now accepting new Lotus Members🪷

If you’ve been looking for holistic womb care, postpartum support, or guidance through a reproductive health journey, I’d be honored to support you.

At The Lotus Program Experience, we provide culturally rooted indigenous care for individuals during pregnancy, postpartum, reproductive healing, and life’s transitional seasons.

Some of our services include:
• In-Home Meal Nourishment Program
• Postpartum Planning & Preparation
• Traditional Postpartum Care
• Womb Healing
• 1:1 Womb Health Consultations
• Miscarriage & Abortion Care
• End-of-Life Care
• Traditional Womb Ceremonies
• Herbal Support

Our womb care isn’t only for pregnancy and postpartum. We also support women navigating common reproductive health diagnoses such as fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and other menstrual and hormonal concerns. I also provide compassionate care for women who have experienced hysterectomies, because healing continues long after surgery.

🪷 Our signature service is the In-Home Meal Nourishment Program (IHMNP). We prepare and deliver nourishing meals to postpartum mothers so they can focus on recovery, rest, and bonding with their little ones while receiving the care they need and deserve.

Whether you’re preparing for birth, healing after birth, managing a reproductive health diagnosis, or simply looking to reconnect with your womb, The Lotus Program Experience is here to support you.

If you’re ready to become a Lotus Member, send me a message or visit

www.thelotusprogramexperience.org to learn more.

In Love,

Femeika 💗

05/26/2026

In search of the BEST Cuban restaurant for catering. I’m open to supporting a Cuban family here in Knoxville that can throw down (they do not have to own a restaurant). I need catering for 50 folks. I need: stewed chicken, rice & beans, pumpkin soup and salad.

TAKING SUGGESTIONS ♥️👇🏾

05/25/2026

Honored to share that I’ll be serving as a panelist at the 2026 Tennessee Association of Black Lawyers Conference.

This year’s theme — A Century of Black History: Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future — calls us to reflect on legacy, leadership, and the responsibility we carry as legal professionals to build what comes next.

I’ll be speaking on Thursday, June 11 | 9:30–11:30 AM during the session:

“In Honor of B.C. Franklin: Rebuilding What Was Taken — Black Wealth, Land, and the Fight for Equity.”

Named in tribute to B. C. Franklin, this panel will examine the historical and modern barriers to Black land ownership and wealth accumulation — and, importantly, equip attorneys with practical tools to protect property rights and advance equitable economic opportunity. 2 CLE hours will be offered.

Grateful for the opportunity to contribute to a conversation that is both deeply historical and urgently present.

🔗 Register: https://www.tablawyers.org/events-news

05/23/2026

Join writer, food justice advocate, and community health disruptor Femeika Elliott for a powerful First Read, Sip, and Signing at The Bottom Knox.

This intimate author talk explores medical mistrust in the Black community through the critical lens of womb care, maternal health, nutrition, and agriculture—grounded in lived experience, historical truth, and community-rooted research in Knoxville and throughout Appalachia.

Elliott is a recipient of the United Way Food Systems Hackathon Award, cofounder of Rooted East Knoxville, and founder of The Lotus Program and Meik Meals. As a maternal health advocate and community researcher, her work centers Black families navigating reproductive, postpartum, and food systems care in East Tennessee.

She is also co-author, alongside of colleague Wendy Welch, of the chapter “Medical Mistrust, Black Womb Care, and Nutrition: The Knot That Will Not Untie Itself” in the newly released book:

Medical Mistrust in Appalachia (University of Tennessee Press)

During this gathering, Elliott will read directly from her chapter, share insights from her CURCI research through The Lotus Program, and lead a candid community conversation about why Black women remain disproportionately unheard, undertreated, and overrepresented in maternal mortality statistics.

She connects the legacy of medical harm, food apartheid, and systemic neglect to the present-day realities Black women and communities face in reproductive and postpartum care—and what healing, trust, and advocacy can look like moving forward.

Books will be available for purchase before the reading and signing.

RSVP here: https://tinyurl.com/AuthorElliott

The book is on Amazon but I’d LOVE for you to grab your copy from my family at the Bottom thebottomknox

05/23/2026

Hey family, I have an author talk + first read & book signing with myself and my colleague Wendy Welch ( ).

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Many of you all know my work in anchored in Appalachia.

Please see details below:
Join writer, food justice advocate, and community health disruptor Femeika Elliott for a powerful First Read, Sip, and Signing at The Bottom Knox ( ).

This intimate author talk explores medical mistrust in the Black community through the critical lens of womb care, maternal health, nutrition, and agriculture—grounded in lived experience, historical truth, and community-rooted research in Knoxville and throughout Appalachia.

As Executive Director & Co-founder of Rooted East Knoxville, and founder of Meik Meals’ Lotus Program. As a maternal health advocate and community researcher, her work centers Black families navigating reproductive health, postpartum care, and food systems in East Tennessee and beyond.

She is also co-author, alongside writer Wendy Welch in Chapter 10: “Medical Mistrust, Black Womb Care, and Nutrition: The Knot That Will Not Untie Itself” in the newly released book: Medical Mistrust in Appalachia (University of Tennessee Press)

During this gathering, Elliott will read directly from her chapter, share insights and lead a candid community conversation.

She connects the legacy of medical harm, food apartheid, and systemic neglect to the present-day realities Black women and communities face in health, reproductive and postpartum care—and what healing, trust, and advocacy can look like moving forward.

Books will be available for purchase before the reading and signing.

RSVP here: https://tinyurl.com/AuthorElliott

05/19/2026

I’ve returned home, but a part of me is still with the land, the farmers, the kitchens, and the people of Cuba.

As a land steward and foodways practitioner, this journey was not about observation. It was about participation. Listening. Working. Learning from people who continue to grow food, tend soil, and care for one another in the face of profound material shortages with a dignity and ingenuity that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

Solidarity is often misunderstood. It is not charity. It is not saviorism. It is not distant sympathy.
Solidarity is relationship. It is shared responsibility. It is showing up with your hands, your body, your resources, and your willingness to be taught.

I am deeply grateful to everyone who donated—whether monetarily or through material goods—in support of the Cuban people. Your contributions traveled with me. They were received with care, intention, and gratitude, and they made a real difference in real hands.

This experience was transformative and life-changing in ways I’m still processing. Because of the nature and depth of what I witnessed and participated in, I will not be posting a full write-up, photos, or detailed content from my time in Cuba here on this page.

Instead, I will be hosting a community conversation and share-out where I can speak more fully, responsibly, and in relationship about what I learned, what I saw, and what this means for how we practice care, food sovereignty, and mutual aid at home.

Thank you for walking with me before, during, and now after this journey. The work continues— globally.

Libre de Cuba 🇨🇺