“People in the neighborhood are always coming up to me: ‘Mrs. Robinson, when is the next feeding? I don’t want to forget,’” says neighborhood activist Alice Robinson. On every third Wednesday of the month since 2003, Robinson and her friend Stella Davis have provided their neighborhood with lunch—for free. “It’s great because Stella and I get to use the little money that we do have from our Social Security checks to give back to our neighborhood,” Robinson says. “It’s rewarding because we have met so many people in the past few years and have built a relationship with them.”
Robinson, who lives near Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, grew up in the ‘30s in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1969 she moved to Long Beach with her husband, Bennie, and purchased a house near Cerritos Ave. and PCH (for $16,700!), where they started their family. In the mid ‘90 Robinson’s son, Bennie Jr., was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed. “For over a year I took care of my son until he suddenly passed away,” Robinson recalls. “I was left devastated; I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die.” For Robinson, this tragedy was a major turning point in her life. “I never wanted to leave the house after my son’s death, until one day my daughter encouraged me to get outside myself and volunteer in the community,” she says.
The first of her community lunches—which now average 70 to 80 people—sprang from Robinson’s desire for all people in the neighborhood to be able to share a meal together. “Growing up in Alabama, everything was segregated. With our feedings, homeless and non-homeless are all gathered around one table. That is the way it is supposed to be. It’s all for a worthy cause. As long as we are able to do it, we are going to do it.” SCOTT JONES
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