Who better to write about than my mother, LaMekka Noble? My mother was born to a teen mom who, by the age of 16, had two children. As a toddler, my mother was shuffled from house to house, moving around with her homeless teen mom. Eventually, my mother was taken in by her grandmother, but it was a very toxic environment, void of love, compassion or support. At the age of 12, my mother changed her birth certificate to obtain an afterschool job at a neighborhood corner store, and throughout high school, she sold candy and did other student’s homework assignments to make lunch money. Little did she know then that this was the beginning of her journey into entrepreneurship.
She was accepted into, and graduated from Clark Atlanta University, the first person in our family line to graduate college. She eventually started a non-profit agency tutoring children free of charge. She began writing grants to obtain funding for her programs, and eventually became a provider of free meals through the USDA. She worked tirelessly for many years, sacrificing time and memories with my sister and I trying to provide a better life for us than she ever had. I watched my mother open various businesses in addition to her non-profit agency. This was my first view into the power of marketing, as my mother fostered relationships with various programs throughout our area, until she built her clientele from 26 meal service sites, to 279. Many programs refused to work with anyone else but my mother’s agency due to the professional, caring nature she fostered amongst her staff and clients.
As with many businesses, she suffered greatly after the pandemic and has yet to recover. However, she has not complained, instead she has picked up the pieces, and rebranded herself, starting from ground level. I have faith and believe that she will once again build herself back up to the level she was pre-pandemic. The one thing she has not lost is her persistence in ensuring her children are successful. She pushes us every day to be better, and we are thankful for her.