Three Montgomery area chapters of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity joined forces to provide lunches for Jackson Hospital employees Friday. Known in Montgomery as the “Capital City Ques,” with Ques being a nickname for fraternity members, the groups wanted to show appreciation for the health care professionals as they treat COVID-19 patients.
The two graduate chapters, Sigma Phi Chapter and Omega Iota Iota Chapter, along with Alabama State University’s collegiate chapter Gamma Sigma Chapter, prepared over 1,000 meals for the hospital’s medical professionals and administrative staff. The event’s co-coordinators, fraternity members Bennie Cooks and Gregory Johnson, were pleased with the turnout and outcome.
Fraternity member Howard “Cupcake” Cooper created the community service initiative for the Capital City Ques. Since May, the group of fraternity brothers has provided pancakes on Saturday mornings to different Montgomery schools offering drive-thru breakfast to the neighborhood.
“This entire concept was Cupcake’s baby and is something he is extremely proud of,” Johnson said. “Brother Cooper is currently in Birmingham recuperating from a long-needed kidney transplant, but he relied on his brothers at home to not put down the torch in his absence.”
With COVID-19 cases causing growing numbers of hospitalizations and deaths throughout the state, showing appreciation to overworked medical workers is significant, Cooks said.
“Now more than ever, it’s important to show our health care workers how essential they have been and continue to be,” he said. “We call them essential, front-line workers for a reason. The fraternity was founded on service, operates on service and service to the community, and those that make a difference is what we celebrate today. This is one of many projects that the Capital City Ques have done and plans on finishing the year out with providing meals to each hospital in the area. We are nowhere near done.”
Golden Flake and Budweiser sponsored the event. Fraternity members Montgomery City Councilman Oronde Mitchell and Alabama State University football coach Donald Hill-Eley helped distribute meals. Other community leaders, including members from local sororities, prepared and distributed meals.
Founded on the campus of Washington, D.C.’s Howard University on Nov. 17, 1911, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity is a founding member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), an association of the nine historically black Greek letter organizations. The fraternity has over 700 chapters globally.
To learn more about Montgomery’s graduate chapters of Omega Psi Phi, visit www.sigmaphichapter.com and www.alabamaques.org.
