San Antonio – A local food vendor, like several others, is excited to return to the Martin Luther King Jr. March after the event was canceled last year due to weather.
Vida Floyd, who teaches special education at Ed White Middle School, is the owner and operator of Jewel’s Cajun Cuisine.
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“I named it Jewel’s Cajun Cuisine in honor of my mother, who passed away,” Floyd said. “I have been cooking since I was 10 years old and always wanted to have a food trailer, so it was a no-brainer to name it after my mother whenever I started my business.”
Floyd said it was also a no-brainer to participate in the country’s largest Martin Luther King Jr. march.
“When I first moved here, I was on the other side marching every year, and then in the end, I would always go to the food vendors and search for all the foods I wanted to try,” Floyd said. “Now I am a vendor and I am like, ‘Come get some!’”
She said her experiences at the event have been so special, which is why she was very disappointed when the march was canceled in 2024 due to the weather.
“You can’t cook gumbo overnight,” she said. “So I had spent that week preparing a ton of gumbo but was thinking, the weather is looking really bad. Then, when we got to that morning and it canceled, I thought, ‘What am I going to do with all of this gumbo,” she laughed.”
She said she understood safety was necessary, though, and despite the event being canceled, she was able to serve people the gumbo she had prepared from her home.
“I was getting several calls, even with the roads being bad, ‘Hey! You got some gumbo?’ They knew where to go, so it was fine,” she laughed again.
This year, Floyd said she is again prepared with food and that the big vendor setup will take place on Saturday. She hopes people will come out despite the cold temperatures.
“You have to think about what MLK stood for,” she said. “It is so important. It is so special. When you are marching together, you actually can’t feel the cold over time,” she laughed. “But just being there and seeing the programs and all the different kinds of people come out is real special. It is more than just serving food for people. It is education because it took a long time for us to get this kind of holiday,” she smiled.
Floyd and her trailer will be set up with other vendors on Monday in Pittman Sullivan Park, where the march ends.
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