Miracle On Munson Street

The Eat Up guys are at it again.

A little after 4 on Christmas Eve, crew members Brian Burkett-Thompson and Kristen Threatt, each dressed as Santa, knocked on the door of the Munson Street home of Janice Morton, bearing bags of games, toys, and food. 

The Christmas Eve visit followed on the heels of last month’s Chili Cookoff at the Omni Hotel, which funded 200 hot meals and over 100 hygiene packages for those in need.

Both efforts were staged by the Eat Up Foundation, a nonprofit formed as an offshoot of the duo’s Eat Up Catering business to leverage Threatt’s business smarts and Burkett-Thompson’s cooking chops as a way to change communities for the better. 

“We were putting out feelers for a single mother in need of a blessing on Christmas, and then we heard about a grandmother raising five kids on her own,” said Threatt, who was settled on the couch alongside Burkhart and Cass Cordoba, 5, in Morton’s cozy, soft-lit living room.

Cass, who’s in kindergarten, was playing with a transformer, among the good-sized sack of toys, books, and games gifted to him by the Eat Up guys.

“He likes cars like his older brother,” said Morton, who presided over the festivities from the arm of a deep-seated easy chair at the front of the room. (The chair was occupied with gifts.) 

Carlos, 13, seated in the corner, nodded. A student at Wexler-Grant School, he said his favorite subject is math. He picked up a box containing a new PlayStation 5. 

“I’ve been wanting this for a long time and now I have one,” he said with some wonder. ​“It means a lot that they thought of us.” 

He said he ultimately wants to do something that involves cars, maybe as a race car driver. 

“Isn’t there a race car driver named Bubba?” Morton said. 

“Bubba Wallace,” someone said, referring to the only full-time African American driver on the NASCAR circuit. 

“Right,” Morton said. ​“So you can do that, absolutely you can.” 

“She’s a role model,” Carlos said of his grandmother. ​“She’s someone who guides me down the right path. She’s my best friend.”

Across the room, his younger sister, Colletta, 12, sprang up. ​“Hey, Carlos, you stole that from me. She’s my best friend.”

Everyone laughed. Ozzie, the family’s dog, barked from the kitchen. 

Morton beamed. ​“I tell them, you can have acquaintances, but I’m their best friend,” she said. ​“There’s too much going on with these children nowadays, too much.”

Dareesha ​“Sunshine” Hardy, of Sunshine’s Paradox Beauty, was sharing tips on body butters and lip scrubs, among the gifts presented to Colletta.

“Use the body scrub in the shower, so it’s also a cleanser at the same time,” Sunshine said. 

Meanwhile, Threatt and Burkett-Thompson were telling Morton about Eat Up. 

“We’re always looking for young men to join our team,” Threatt said.

“That’s good,” Morton said, ​“because the one thing I know is how to be a nanna. Some things I don’t know how to explain to them.” 

Colletta, who’s a high honors student and standout basketball player at Wexler-Grant, was admiring her new pink Nike waffle sneakers with the leopard swoop. 

“My nanna has helped me stay positive,” she said. ​“She tells me to be my own person.”

“Out of this group, she’s the oldest girl,” Morton said of Colletta. ​“I had all seven of them. Three aged out, but one of them still stays here. They’re all really good kids.”

She turned her attention to Kennedy, 7, who was on the floor playing with her new Princess dolls.

“Now this one, she’s going to be a singer,” she said, adding that she just performed with her school choir at the tree lighting on the Green. 

“She’s beautiful,” said Capria Burkett-Thompson, Bryan’s wife. ​“Can I take her home?”

“Hey, I got quite a few,” Morton replied, deadpan. ​“And they’re already potty-trained.”

Morton works with adults with disabilities at Hart United in North Haven.

“I work, I come home, I take care of the kids,” she said.

“The greatest thing about being with them, every day, they say, ​‘Nanna, you okay?’ ​‘Nanna, you want some water?’” she said. ​“Or to really top it off, they always always always always every single day, ​‘Nanna, I love you,’ every single day. They don’t miss it.” 

“Especially that one,” she said, gesturing at Carlos. ​“He doesn’t exactly say I love you, but his actions show that he loves me. ​‘Nanna, you want some water?’ Nanna, you OK?’”

Lamar Johnson, a member of the Eat Up team, was just outside. He had connected Threatt and Burkhart-Thompson with Morton’s family. 

“They asked me if there was a single mother out there that they could help,” he said. ​“I put a post on Facebook. Three kids or more, who needed a blessing on Christmas.

“I was raised by a single mom. Single moms are the backbone of the community, and they need to be recognized for their good work when fathers aren’t there anymore, and they do need a little help,” he said.

“I don’t know much about Janice, but I do know that grandmas ain’t like they used to be back in the day, but she is,” he said, as a siren sounded in the distance. ​“She’s one of those good grandmas that’s standing in the gap for her grandchildren, ​‘cause those kids coulda been in the system.” 

“We put the groceries in the kitchen,” Burkett-Thompson was telling Morton. ​“Chicken wings, beef patties, juice, sodas, and pizzas from Gennaro’s.” There were also treats from Shanell Jefferson’s Cakes by the Pound, Ashante Sweets, and Tracey Joseph’s CakeSpell Delightful Baking. 

“Oh no, you didn’t,” she said. 

“I’m grateful for them,” Morton said, of the Eat Up guys. ​“This is what it’s about. It’s about the kids. It really is.”

To donate to the Eat Up Foundation, Venmo @Eatup-foundation; Cashapp $Kristenmthreatt. Checks may be sent to 32 Greenwood St. New Haven, 06519. For more information, call or text 203 – 671-6954 or 475 – 308-6355.