“Food can bring us together.” For Felix Colon, this is more than just a saying; it’s an action. In North Central Massachusetts, Felix founded Meek and Humble Ministries, a nonprofit organization that cooks, delivers and serves approximately 80 hot meals three times per week to individuals and families in need. Unlike some more traditional programs, Felix loads all the meals in his truck and delivers them to people where they are.
He has been the main volunteer behind Meek and Humble for three years – but he has been doing the work in his community much longer.
During the pandemic, as people were being forced to stay home, Felix was thinking about those living on the streets and those struggling with addiction. Who was helping them?
He had dealt with his own struggles of homelessness and addiction, so he knew what they were experiencing. He knew the need and the challenges. He also had ideas for solutions.
His work helping people in Fitchburg led NewVue Communities, a NeighborWorks network organization, to nominate Felix for the Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership. Felix was one of four recipients of the award nationwide.
Away from home
Felix ran away from home at the age of 13, due family issues and abuse. He got involved with the wrong people, he said, and spent time in jail. He also saw violence and was shot at age 17.
“It led me to a lot of places I wouldn’t choose to be in,” he said. But now, thinking back on this time in his life, “My life experience is my greatest asset.”
After more time in and out of jail, Felix began working on sobriety and on his life.
While working as a mentor for an organization in Boston, Journeys of Hope, he met a young man living on the streets, and that one interaction, grew to his managing 150 caseloads. He developed an intuitive street outreach model; his Intuition guides him. “They don't make a manual on how to help someone,” he said.
Now living in Fitchburg, he has developed relationships with local nonprofit organizations, including NewVue Communities, as well as churches and restaurants to support this work, allowing him and volunteers to cook meals – entirely with food that has been donated – and coordinate deliveries.
Felix learned to cook at the age of 11 for his sisters. “Cooking is therapy,” he said. “I love when people tell me they love a dish. I put love in it.” When asked what meal he finds himself cooking the most, he answers quickly: “Lots of chicken.”
Helping the community
Francisco Ramos, who nominated Felix for the Dorothy Richardson Award on behalf of NewVue Communities, said that his work “really comes to supplement what we are doing. We are very happy that he is active and we're figuring out ways of supporting him and collaborating with him and similar ministries.”
Ramos said that while others help those experiencing homelessness, Felix is “the only ministry that actually visits members of the community where they live. He's an essential leader out there…He’s a person of action.”
An example of this action includes partnering with a local church to provide mobile showers. The project had been in the talking stages for awhile, Ramos said, but Felix didn’t want to wait, and made it happen.
Dawn Long has helped Colon with outreach for years, and also helped with the portable camp showers. “Everyone gets judged for being homeless on the streets,” she said. When people experiencing homelessness have a chance to shower, “They just feel… I’m trying to find the right word. Safe.”
This winter, Felix has an arrangement with a local YMCA for the shower project to continue indoors.
Felix doesn’t judge and is a huge source of support, Long said. He recently marked 17 years in recovery. “He can relate to people to the streets because one time 17 years ago, he was in the same boat.”
His pastor, Louis Philbrook of Gospel Gateway Church, says Colon is a great collaborator. “He calls our church his church and he calls me his pastor. But he collaborates with everyone to help those that are in need, especially those who are homeless or addicted.”
As part of his leadership development, Felix took part in the NeighborWorks Community Leadership Institute in Minneapolis last year. Ramos, who had met Colon at the beginning of the pandemic, was also on the trip, and has watched Felix in action.
With his ministry, “Felix is not waiting for unhoused individuals to come to a certain location to pick up food. He cooks the food and puts it on the back of his truck and then he drives to the unhoused communities live, and he distributes the food and talks to them and offers companionship. He knows them so he knows individuals that need recovery services; he's always inviting them to join recovery services.”
Felix’s work gets to the heart of what Dorothy Mae Richardson saw in her community. “It’s about meeting people where they are at,” he said.
A part of a legacy
In Pittsburgh in the 1960s, Richarson’s neighborhood needed help and she and her neighbors were determined to get it.
They brought together residents, bankers and community and state leaders to work to save their community, starting with conventional loans that would help residents rebuild and repair their homes. Richardson’s work became the foundation for Neighborhood Housing Services of Pittsburgh, the model NeighborWorks America adopted and spread. Her leadership showed that residents themselves know their communities best – the challenges, and how to resolve those challenges.
That’s what Felix does.
In addition to feeding the community through Meek and Humble, Felix is also a licensed recovery counselor who helps individuals experiencing addiction to enter recovery programs and take control of their lives. He doesn’t stop at the beginning of their recovery journey but continues to provide resources and support to help. He has created a "buddy system" to support individuals who enter recovery programs, helping them find odd jobs that help support their families while in recovery. He also speaks to high school students on the power of recovery. “We hear a lot about addiction but not a lot about recovery,” he said.
His message? Be empathic and be kind. "A smile or a kind word can transform a life.”
Larry Kelly was living in a homeless encampment when he first met Felix, who brought him food, clothing, "and just somebody to talk to. We developed a friendship."
In 2024, when Kelly got an infection in his foot, Felix took him to the hospital. After Kelly's leg was later amputated, Kelly said it was the kick he needed to get into recovery. Felix helped him along the way. Now, Kelly is a certified recovery coach, too, for a recovery center in Fitchburg. "That means I help people find their pathway to recovery. I help people get into treatment."
Their stories are intertwined, Kelly said, and it's a part of Felix's legacy. "I'm just passing on what Felix helped me come to terms with."
As part of America250, the bipartisan initiative to engage every American in the 250th anniversary of the United States, NeighborWorks is sharing the stories of people who build their communities and make them stronger. No one exemplifies that more than resident leaders.
