Meals 4 Heels | Mercatus

“Sex workers are everywhere,” Newton says. “We all know someone who is a sex worker, [but we may not] know they’re a sex worker… This is bigger than Portland. It’s bigger than me [and] it’s bigger than sex work. It’s caring for sex workers. It’s caring for trans rights. It’s abolishing prison systems, unjust food systems and more all tied into one. I’m just doing what I know, and it feels incredible.”

Nikeisah Newton | Founder Meals 4 Heels

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For Portland’s 9-5-working crowd, when quittin’ time rolls around and you’re ready for dinner, evening and late-night dining options abound, from food carts to restaurants to take-out delivery services. But for Portland’s community of sex and sex-positive workers in Portland’s infamous and vibrant nightlife/strip club scene, finding affordable, delicious, nutritious food that’s easy to eat on-the-go for “fourth meal” ain’t easy—particularly in low-income neighborhoods.

Chef/entrepreneur Nikeisah Newton has the remedy: Meals 4 Heels, an Instagram-based late-night meal delivery service that caters to sex workers in Portland. As described on the company website, the M4H menu is the best late-night alternative to bar food for the sex worker community. Newton, a chef with more than 15 fifteen years of restaurant and catering experience, sources ingredients from local farmers markets and prepares dishes daily from a shared commercial kitchen in inner Southeast Portland. Each dish is thoughtfully focused with an emphasis on providing vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free offerings that are often low in sugar, sodium, and non-essential fats.

Fan favorites include the G.T.P. or Get That Paper, a Thai-inspired tom kha roasted cauliflower dish with sweet potato noodles, coconut milk, tamarind, pickled cucumbers, togarashi, and truffle oil tomatoes; and the Cha Cha Cha: greens and brown rice with citrus slaw, avocado, cheddar and cotija, homemade salsa, and pickled onions with a side of tortilla chips.

M4H delivery is available between the hours of 9 pm and 2 am Friday and Saturday, and 930 pm – 12 am Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. To order, customers place requests primarily via Instagram direct message.

Westside or Eastside, Newton personally delivers each meal. Her delivery service covers all of Portland, including “the Numbers.” and even Beaverton. “[If] it’s a long-distance I’ll charge a bit extra, but I feel like it means so much to the [customer]. They’re working hard for their money and there is so much more they have to put up with from [their] customers and just from the industry in general,” says Newton.

Initially, Newton made dinners to-go for a friend and former roommate, a sex worker at the time. “[My friend] would bring the food to the job, and colleagues were ‘ooh’ing and ‘ahh’ing over [it]… Portland has a bustling food scene with lots of food carts. [Portland also being] known as strip city, having the most strip clubs per capita, it was obvious to put two and two together,” she says of creating Meals 4 Heels.

With proper funding, Newton hopes to grow Meals 4 Heels on a large scale. For now, she’s focused on securing investments to grow the business locally, including hiring a few employees to delegate some of the day-to-day tasks and help spread the word about the M4H meal gifting program (which allows individuals to buy a meal for someone in need).

“Sex workers are everywhere,” Newton says. “We all know someone who is a sex worker, [but we may not] know they’re a sex worker… This is bigger than Portland. It’s bigger than me [and] it’s bigger than sex work. It’s caring for sex workers. It’s caring for trans rights. It’s abolishing prison systems, unjust food systems and more all tied into one. I’m just doing what I know, and it feels incredible.”

Storytellers

Author: Tiara Darnell
Photos: Intisar Abioto and Christine Dong
Published: January 2020

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p: 971.231.4248

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