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LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Time now for StoryCorps. Nate Walls was running a barbecue catering company in Fayetteville, Arkansas, when COVID hit. When business stopped, he took all the money in his bank account, kept cooking and started delivering free meals to anyone who needed them. At StoryCorps, Walls told his friend, Angye Blackburn, about a time that he almost quit.
NATE WALLS: Initially, our thing was knocking on doors. And I remember we went into the trailer park and it had rebel flags everywhere. The first person was, like, just leave it at the door, you know? And we got a couple of doors down and this one particular guy, he opened up the door, like, aggressively. Inside my head, I'm saying, this is going to get ugly, just by his whole energy. He said, I don't want this N-food. I'm, like, wow. OK. I wanted to punch him.
The next week, it was the same thing. Every day, he had something to say. N-word this, N-word that. It was rough. It could have been easy to just, I ain't going back over there. I didn't sign up for all that. But there are 59 other people in that trailer park that need to eat. And every day I would knock on his door, ask him if he wanted a plate. One time, he didn't say anything. He just opened the door, took the plate and that was it.
But after a while, he was more friendly - thank you, you know, this food is good, man. And we started talking about just stuff, sports and money, bills and problems that all of us have. He talked about his family and how bad life has treated him. And it wasn't that different from the way I was thinking about my life. He was like, man, I just want to apologize. I know you wanted to whip my ass. I was, like, real bad (laughter).
Well, I made it a point to keep returning to that trailer park. And then, probably two months later, all the rebel flags are gone. And, man, that touched me. It's easy to care about people that care about you. You know, the challenge is caring about people that don't care about you.
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FADEL: Nate Walls speaking with his friend, Angye Blackburn, in Springdale, Arkansas. Walls is still delivering food to people in need. Their interview is archived at the Library of Congress. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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