SOMA Living March 2023

MEET THE FAVORS FAMILY

Photography by Jamie Meier

If you ask many of the teachers, firefighters, and police officers of Maplewood and South Orange, “Where can you get the best curry chicken with rice and peas?” they will smile and say, “Nana Brown.” Enid “Nana” Brown is 86 years young, and for the last twenty years she’s been delivering Jamaican meals, cooked with love, to her grandchildren’s teachers and the professionals who help keep SOMA safe. Nana Brown lives with her daughter, Tara, and her family. This includes her son in law, Dale, and her grandchildren Dalton (20) and Davis (17). Dalton is a Junior at Morehouse College where he is majoring in Economics and Chinese Studies and is currently spending a semester abroad in Hong Kong. Davis is a senior at Columbia High School where he acts in both dramatic plays and musicals (all four years). He’s currently applying to colleges with drama programs. Tara beamed as she shared, “So many of my friends who live here don’t have parents in the area. She was the adopted grand-parent for a ton of their kids.” Nana Brown is bigger than just SOMA. Tara described, “ My family is a member of Jack and Jill of America, Inc, a national organization dedicated to nurturing future African-American leaders. In the depths of COVID – my Mom is teaching teenagers how to make curried chicken. South Orange resident Michelle Miller who is an anchor on CBS Saturday Morning picked up the story and got her featured on CBS Mornings .” Nana Brown is also active in the First Baptist Church and St. Andrew’s Church. Tara and Dale moved to SOMA in August of 1998. Tara explained, “He was living in Brooklyn and I was finishing up graduate school and living in Long Island. Dale knew about South Orange because some of his colleagues in finance lived in town. He knew that there is a really beautiful and close knit black community of professionals in South Orange. We knew we would find a home for our family here. We love this town!”

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