By Alayna Simons
On the street where grocery stores have diminished and crime has risen between neighbors, the smell of fried chicken and green beans slips through the weathered door of the restaurant Scrape the Plate. With just a kitchen and a few chairs set out to wait, Amber and Marquise Hill, co-owners of the restaurant, cook and serve food to customers sitting right outside as their youngest son clings to his moms side with his Spiderman hat and crayon drawings.
“I haven’t made a dollar today, but I’ve got a smile on my face because I know what’s to come,” said Hill.
In the past year, residents of the Napier Sudekum housing community have experienced significant loss with the closure of the local Dollar General store and the rise of violence in the midst of scarce food access.
Hill became involved with the Love Thy Neighborhood Collective this past year as well and offered, at their most recent meeting, to open her restaurant and provide food for any events by the collective.
Amanda Key, co-chair of the health and wellness committee for the Love Thy Neighborhood Collective, said that the community needs to work to make the neighborhood better from the inside out rather than focusing on how to get out.
“We have missed the mark in some areas,” said Key. “The people have been programmed to work so hard or try to, or want to, move out of the neighborhood instead of building up the neighborhood, thriving in the neighborhood, protecting the neighborhood, cleaning up the neighborhood.”
The heart of Scrape the Plate is to not only be a place where people can come to receive a home-cooked meal, but a place of fellowship, warmth, and hope as the Hill family’s goal is to continually give back to the community starting in the center of it.
It all started when Hill saw a need within the community back in 2010. She grabbed a tent, a table, and a propane burner and settled on the side of the road to make fish and potatoes to sell to the community.
“There just ended up not being anything on that street to eat,” said Hill. “One day, I just said I’m going to start selling some food and see how I do. I just started making that my everyday hustle.”
With some money that was left for her by her mother, who passed away in 2017, Hill invested in a food truck and that became her business.
In the midst of these years of business growth and efforts, Hill ended up being arrested for selling drugs.
“I decided, when I got in trouble that last time, that I just wasn’t gonna do it anymore,” said Hill. “I was tired of going back and forth to jail. So I asked God and said, ‘If you give me and bless me with talent like you already have, I will take my hands and do something good with them this time when I get out, instead of something bad.”
Years later, in November of 2024, Hill and her husband took over the old Four Daughters Restaurant building and opened Scrape the Plate with her husband.
Hill has been in the food-making business now for 15 years while her husband, Hill Sr., learned everything on his own when they first opened the restaurant.
“It’s been real new for me with customer service, because on the food truck I basically just work and help,” said Hill Sr. “But now I can be a part and it’s something possibly to give back to the community.”
Along with the food service that her husband has taken the lead on for her, Hill worked for Trevecca Nazarene University as the assistant property manager for a brief time, and eventually transitioned to now work a full-time job with the Urban Housing Solutions.
“There’s no way I could do any of this by myself, like he’s the head and I’m the tail. That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” said Hill. “The last three months he’s been in here on his own, learning everything.”
Hill believes that if the community works together, a difference can be made both in housing and food security.
“You just don’t know what nobody is suffering from or what anybody is like,” said Hill. “There’s a lot of food security issues.”
The full meal plates that are served at Scrape the Plate are sold for $20, but both Hill and her husband try to give food away to any kids that come by in need.
“We got no groceries in our fridge because we spend all our money doing this,” said Hill. “So I make sure that when I cook this, I cook enough for every day. I have to cook enough for here and there and some kind of food for the kids that come by.”
In the past, Hill has opened her space at the restaurant inside and out to provide tutoring for kids after school along with providing food for anyone who comes. Hill hopes that this kind of program grows into a consistent event throughout school years.
“I’d love to grow and say, ‘come down here guys, get some help with your homework, listen to a little music, and get something to eat and have a safe place to come to’,” said Hill.
Though he has been in the food business for a brief time, Hill Sr. hopes to grow the business as it’s already shown potential.
“I hope that we can potentially have another restaurant somewhere, another one or two, and just, something to have for my family. For my kids, so they can follow in and eventually help and work one or two if they want,” said Hill Sr.
Hill hopes for further resources, collaboration, and community moving forward in order to give back to the community.
“I hope that people can work together, that we all work together,” said Hill. “We can feed more people.”
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This is absolutely amazing!! Amber and Marquise you guys are doing a great job. Keep those delicious plates coming!!