Lydia Brookter was content as a homemaker, until Mt. Olive Feeding Ministry came calling
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL — Ask Lydia Brookter about the people she has helped while working as the director of the Mt. Olive Feeding Ministry and the tears begin to slip from her eyes.
“People don’t realize how many truly homeless folks are in Slidell,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine having nowhere to put my head to sleep at night, but there are a lot of people in Slidell who face that.”
Brookter recently stepped down after 15 years as director of the Feeding Ministry, started in 1990 by Mt. Olive AME Church on Second Street in Slidell. She is 68 years of age now, and her husband of 48 years, Alphonse Brookter, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
Due to those years with the feeding ministry, she will be the special guest being honored at a Black Tie Gala at Patton’s Restaurant on Friday, August 13.
For Brookter, being a true homemaker is what she had done most of her life. Graduating from St. Tammany High School in 1961 here in Slidell, the high school for African Americans during segregation, she remembers the day just before she graduated when Principal Robert C. Brooks sat all the seniors down, and asked them a simple question.
“What are you going to do with your life when you graduate?” Brookter remembers him asking.
“It was only a few years ago that one of the classmates I graduated with told me, ‘Lydia, you remember when Mr. Brooks asked us what we were going to do with our lives? You’re the only one who did it!’ And that’s true,” she said with a smile. “I did do exactly what I said.”
For Brookter, her idea of a great life wasn’t about becoming a doctor or lawyer. It was to be a “housewife who stayed home raising my children.”
She married Alphonse when she was 19, and right away they agreed she would be a stay-at-home wife, since Alphonse thought it was so important for the kids to have mom and dad there all the time.
“He saw too many broken families, and thought it was because the woman was out working,” Brookter said. “He said we weren’t going to do that.”
That’s exactly what Brookter did, even though she did find a way to help out with the finances by keeping children in her home, and with her sewing work.
It was easy to make that transition to watching children since she was one of four children in a family where she and one brother were born within two years of each other, then 13 years later, two more children were added to the family. Today she has three grown children of her own, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
“My brother and I kind of raised my other brother and sister,” she recalled. “I was even raising some of my nieces and nephews. I always loved kids.”
Her husband worked as a painter and she learned to be very careful with their money, as her mother taught her.
“My mama taught me that when you went to the store, and it cost $2.50 for something, you always gave the man $3, then you saved the change at home,” she said.
Brookter did that for years, and when she and her husband were ready to buy their first house, she had $500 in change that proved vital to having a down payment on their first little home.
She continued to keep children for 23 years, figuring that she kept “somewhere around 200” over that time.
“It all started when a friend asked me to watch her baby since she knew I was staying home each day,” she said. “That turned into more and more. I always figured God has something for everyone and I was supposed to watch children.”
She attended Mt. Olive Church and in 1990, a woman named Hattie Mills started making a pot of beans every day to feed some people at the church who were in need. That began to grow to twice a week, then three days a week, as the need became more evident.
Rev. Herbert Spears came to Brookter one day and asked for her help.
“He said to me, ‘Lydia, you could give us one day up at the feeding ministry, couldn’t you?’” she said. “I kind of laughed since you know you aren’t going to tell the pastor no. So I started coming up there one day a week since my kids were grown.”
Immediately it had an impact on her.
“When I saw how bad it was for a lot of people, who got their only meals there, I had to do more,” she said. “One day the pastor just watched the people coming in. He asked one man, ‘what do you do the days we aren’t here?’ and the man said he didn’t eat. That’s why I had to do more.”
Brookter remembers when Rev. Spears wanted to do more for the needy families, and started delivering meals to shut-ins. Suddenly the ministry jumped to five days a week, and preparing 100 meals a day.
Other churches began to help, both with volunteers and funds for the food, and different groups began to help with other things, like a Leadership Slidell class that raised money to buy them an ice making machine.
The ministry ran from a very small, old building across the street from Mt. Olive church for all that time, then when Katrina hit, it turned into a blessing since the devastation brought the power of the Rotary organization in to help. They ended up building a brand new building with a beautiful, large kitchen, costing several hundred thousand dollars.
“God saw what we were doing there, and he wanted us to have better,” Brookter said.
The ministry grew again, now to 300 meals a day and six days a week—and still, Brookter was there, now as the director of it all.
“I never imagined I would end up doing all that for so many years, but it was such a big need, and I couldn’t turn my back on all those folks coming to get a meal,” she said.
She admits there have been critics over the years, questioning some of the people who come day-after-day. Brookter has an answer for them.
“God doesn’t tell me to judge them folks,” she said. “I know some of these people could probably go get a job, but many of them can’t. There are a lot of drug addicts and alcoholics who can’t do nothing with their lives, and we at least can feed them.”
Brookter went beyond just cooking the food, feeling such compassion for many that she would pay for nights at the City Motel down the street, or just give money to some who asked for it.
“Have some of these people taken advantage of us, or me? Yes, I’m sure,” she said. “But I can’t send them away with an empty pocket when God has blessed me so much. I told someone one day, ‘what if I get to the gates one day, and God says, ‘that was me you turned away.’ I just try to help them, and let God judge.”
Natasha Woods has taken over as director of the ministry and is heading the fundraiser on August 13 to further support the ministry.
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL — Ask Lydia Brookter about the people she has helped while working as the director of the Mt. Olive Feeding Ministry and the tears begin to slip from her eyes.
“People don’t realize how many truly homeless folks are in Slidell,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine having nowhere to put my head to sleep at night, but there are a lot of people in Slidell who face that.”
Brookter recently stepped down after 15 years as director of the Feeding Ministry, started in 1990 by Mt. Olive AME Church on Second Street in Slidell. She is 68 years of age now, and her husband of 48 years, Alphonse Brookter, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
Due to those years with the feeding ministry, she will be the special guest being honored at a Black Tie Gala at Patton’s Restaurant on Friday, August 13.
For Brookter, being a true homemaker is what she had done most of her life. Graduating from St. Tammany High School in 1961 here in Slidell, the high school for African Americans during segregation, she remembers the day just before she graduated when Principal Robert C. Brooks sat all the seniors down, and asked them a simple question.
“What are you going to do with your life when you graduate?” Brookter remembers him asking.
“It was only a few years ago that one of the classmates I graduated with told me, ‘Lydia, you remember when Mr. Brooks asked us what we were going to do with our lives? You’re the only one who did it!’ And that’s true,” she said with a smile. “I did do exactly what I said.”
For Brookter, her idea of a great life wasn’t about becoming a doctor or lawyer. It was to be a “housewife who stayed home raising my children.”
She married Alphonse when she was 19, and right away they agreed she would be a stay-at-home wife, since Alphonse thought it was so important for the kids to have mom and dad there all the time.
“He saw too many broken families, and thought it was because the woman was out working,” Brookter said. “He said we weren’t going to do that.”
That’s exactly what Brookter did, even though she did find a way to help out with the finances by keeping children in her home, and with her sewing work.
It was easy to make that transition to watching children since she was one of four children in a family where she and one brother were born within two years of each other, then 13 years later, two more children were added to the family. Today she has three grown children of her own, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
“My brother and I kind of raised my other brother and sister,” she recalled. “I was even raising some of my nieces and nephews. I always loved kids.”
Her husband worked as a painter and she learned to be very careful with their money, as her mother taught her.
“My mama taught me that when you went to the store, and it cost $2.50 for something, you always gave the man $3, then you saved the change at home,” she said.
Brookter did that for years, and when she and her husband were ready to buy their first house, she had $500 in change that proved vital to having a down payment on their first little home.
She continued to keep children for 23 years, figuring that she kept “somewhere around 200” over that time.
“It all started when a friend asked me to watch her baby since she knew I was staying home each day,” she said. “That turned into more and more. I always figured God has something for everyone and I was supposed to watch children.”
She attended Mt. Olive Church and in 1990, a woman named Hattie Mills started making a pot of beans every day to feed some people at the church who were in need. That began to grow to twice a week, then three days a week, as the need became more evident.
Rev. Herbert Spears came to Brookter one day and asked for her help.
“He said to me, ‘Lydia, you could give us one day up at the feeding ministry, couldn’t you?’” she said. “I kind of laughed since you know you aren’t going to tell the pastor no. So I started coming up there one day a week since my kids were grown.”
Immediately it had an impact on her.
“When I saw how bad it was for a lot of people, who got their only meals there, I had to do more,” she said. “One day the pastor just watched the people coming in. He asked one man, ‘what do you do the days we aren’t here?’ and the man said he didn’t eat. That’s why I had to do more.”
Brookter remembers when Rev. Spears wanted to do more for the needy families, and started delivering meals to shut-ins. Suddenly the ministry jumped to five days a week, and preparing 100 meals a day.
Other churches began to help, both with volunteers and funds for the food, and different groups began to help with other things, like a Leadership Slidell class that raised money to buy them an ice making machine.
The ministry ran from a very small, old building across the street from Mt. Olive church for all that time, then when Katrina hit, it turned into a blessing since the devastation brought the power of the Rotary organization in to help. They ended up building a brand new building with a beautiful, large kitchen, costing several hundred thousand dollars.
“God saw what we were doing there, and he wanted us to have better,” Brookter said.
The ministry grew again, now to 300 meals a day and six days a week—and still, Brookter was there, now as the director of it all.
“I never imagined I would end up doing all that for so many years, but it was such a big need, and I couldn’t turn my back on all those folks coming to get a meal,” she said.
She admits there have been critics over the years, questioning some of the people who come day-after-day. Brookter has an answer for them.
“God doesn’t tell me to judge them folks,” she said. “I know some of these people could probably go get a job, but many of them can’t. There are a lot of drug addicts and alcoholics who can’t do nothing with their lives, and we at least can feed them.”
Brookter went beyond just cooking the food, feeling such compassion for many that she would pay for nights at the City Motel down the street, or just give money to some who asked for it.
“Have some of these people taken advantage of us, or me? Yes, I’m sure,” she said. “But I can’t send them away with an empty pocket when God has blessed me so much. I told someone one day, ‘what if I get to the gates one day, and God says, ‘that was me you turned away.’ I just try to help them, and let God judge.”
Natasha Woods has taken over as director of the ministry and is heading the fundraiser on August 13 to further support the ministry.
Slidell church food ministry to benefit from Black Tie Gala Published:
Tuesday, July 26, 2011, 11:00 AM By Suzie Hunt The Times-Picayune
A Black Tie Gala will benefit the Mount Olive Feeding Ministry on Aug. 13 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Patton’s Restaurant in the former Salmen-Fritchie House 127 Cleveland St. in Olde Towne Slidell.
The event will serve to honor Lydia Brookter for her 15 years of service to the ministry, as well as to recognize all the volunteers who help with the feeding program, according to Natasha Woods, director of the program.
“We want to thank Ms. Brookter for all of her hard work, as well as the 15 churches and organizations and the individual volunteers that help provide this service,” said Woods.
Tickets for the dinner are $30 and includes dinner and a silent auction. According to Woods, attire can be black tie or semi-formal.
Proceeds from the event will go to the ministry’s operating budget.
“We have seen a definite increase in the number of people coming to us due to the economy. We serve about 88,000 meals per year, or between 7,500 to 8,000 lunches per month,” said Woods.
The feeding ministry prepares and serves lunch six days a week from the Mount Olive Feeding Program at 2442 Second St. A large number of meals are also delivered to people in need who cannot make it to the ministry’s building.
The ministry is located across the street from its host church, the Mount Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The event will serve to honor Lydia Brookter for her 15 years of service to the ministry, as well as to recognize all the volunteers who help with the feeding program, according to Natasha Woods, director of the program.
“We want to thank Ms. Brookter for all of her hard work, as well as the 15 churches and organizations and the individual volunteers that help provide this service,” said Woods.
Tickets for the dinner are $30 and includes dinner and a silent auction. According to Woods, attire can be black tie or semi-formal.
Proceeds from the event will go to the ministry’s operating budget.
“We have seen a definite increase in the number of people coming to us due to the economy. We serve about 88,000 meals per year, or between 7,500 to 8,000 lunches per month,” said Woods.
The feeding ministry prepares and serves lunch six days a week from the Mount Olive Feeding Program at 2442 Second St. A large number of meals are also delivered to people in need who cannot make it to the ministry’s building.
The ministry is located across the street from its host church, the Mount Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church.