She was homeless and hungry in Liberia. Now, she helps feed those in need with 'One Less Worry'

G. Wayne Miller Aug 29, 2022

The Providence Journal

PROVIDENCE — When Nellie Gaye, 63, experienced a severe adverse reaction to a medication in 2019, she was hospitalized at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital. Her life was imperiled, according to Nellie and her daughter Netta Jenkins.

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Nellie survived, but temporarily lost her memory and her ability to walk, the women said. After discharge, she required support from a nurse and physical and orthopedic therapists.

Nellie's mobility and memory eventually returned — and with it, a vow to help Rhode Island’s hungry and homeless, a vow that resulted in her establishing the One Less Worry program, which provides free, healthy food to people in need. It is based at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

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“I came back for a reason,” Nellie, a woman of faith, said on Tuesday during a noontime visit to the church, where people were picking up meals. “I came back to do this mission on earth.”

Homeless as a child

Her roots can be traced to Monrovia, the capital of the West African nation of Liberia, where she was born. When the aunt who was raising her died when she was a young girl, “I didn’t know anyone,” Nellie said. “I became homeless. I didn’t have anywhere to go, no food. Eleven years old and nothing.”

She subsisted on the kindness of strangers, and when she was 18, Nellie left Africa for Rhode Island, home to a sizeable Liberian community. She first settled in Providence with a family and later moved to Johnston after the birth of her daughter Netta. She became an aide at Cherry Hill Manor and Rehab Center, the start of a healthcare career that culminated in employment as a certified nursing assistant at Roger Williams Medical Center.

At Cherry Hill, she said, “with what I did, I just felt in my heart that I needed to give these people love. Nobody ever gave me love.”

'Very good meals'

As Nellie spoke last Tuesday at Ebenezer Baptist, her staff was preparing and packaging food, along with a bottle of water, for the needy to pick up at a side door, no questions asked. The One Less Worry website describes its meals as “tasty, hearty cuisine that nourishes and energizes [recipients’] bodies so they may reach new heights in their lives.”

One person who benefits is Dennis, who said he resides in a dilapidated West End apartment building that is virtually uninhabitable. From the outside, it looks as if it is about to fall into ruin.

“I live in a rat hole,” Dennis said as he stood outside the church’s Ford Street side entrance, the pick-up place for meals. “I don't have a place to go to, another house. Every time I talk to somebody, they say ‘we're going to do this, going to come,’ but they never come” to make repairs.

Dennis said his stove doesn’t work, so he is unable to cook; breakfast, he said, is something cold from a can.

But at Ebenezer Baptist, he said, “you get food and it’s very good meals.”

And on the six days when One Less Worry isn’t serving, he said, “pastor will help you. Everybody will help you.” Rev. Dr. Carl H. Balark Jr. is Ebenezer’s long-time pastor.

'My way of giving back'

Nellie Gaye launched One Less Worry last fall, after travelling through Rhode Island to identify populations of homeless people and determine menus.

“I wanted to give them healthy cuisine that would nourish the body,” she said. “I could give them back that which I didn't have — and let them eat and know that they are somebody's child, somebody’s husband, somebody's mother, somebody's brother, somebody’s sister.”

Nellie said she used all of her savings, emptying her 401(k) retirement account of all but $400, to get underway. When her daughter Netta discovered what she had done, she was concerned and contributed thousands of dollars of her own money to the cause.

With her focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) issues, Netta, one of Nellie's four children, founded two startups: Holistic Inclusion Consulting and Dipper, “an online, interactive community and safe-space for professionals of color to share their workplace experiences,” according to its website. She has been a TEDx speaker and featured in Forbes and other leading publications.

So her business sense is keen. With it, she encouraged her mother to seek other resources. In July, the Rhode Island Foundation gave nonprofit One Less Worry a $7,500 grant. Other fundraising efforts are underway for the program, which feeds more than 100 people every Tuesday with a cumulative total now of about 4,000, according to Nellie.

“Coming out of a life-threatening experience, my mom realized how precious life was and immediately wanted to drive impact for others in a meaningful way,” Netta wrote in an email. “One Less Worry was her answer, especially being that she experienced homelessness and hunger as child.”

Said Nellie: “This is my way of giving back.”

On Sept. 24, One Less Worry will host a community picnic with free food, music, dancing and more. The event runs from noon to 4 p.m. at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 475 Cranston St., Providence.