Over the past 20 plus years, Jameka and Patrick Evans have shown leadership and entrepreneurial skills in the Covington small business and Black-owned business communities.
Jameka Evans holds degrees in social work and early childhood education. She started her first childcare center from her home in 1999, and by 2007 she turned the business into what is known today as Heavenly Daycare Center. The couple has continued to expand their businesses through childcare and other industries.
In 2017 Jameka opened her second childcare center, called Next Generation.
The couple became property owners and are currently renovating, with plans to turn the spaces into Airbnb’s. Patrick Evans also is a licensed kennel operator and runs Evans Kennels.
The couple’s most recent accomplishment is Evan’s Kitchens, located on the second floor of Next Generation Daycare Center. Evan’s Kitchen will focus on catering meals for child and adult care centers.
Francine Price, Jameka’s assistant who has known the family for almost 20 years, said the new venture was born out of a need in Covington.
“There was a catering company in Covington, and it was called Dining Solutions,” Price said. “Unfortunately, Dining Solutions went out of business; however, they had pretty much the entire book of business of childcare, adult care centers and special needs centers.”
After recognizing the need to serve food for these centers, the Evans’ had to acquire licenses from the health department, have inspections done and get catering permits to operate the Kitchen. The Evans family motto has been to do it yourself if there is no one else doing it. This saying has served the powerhouse couple well throughout their businesses.
Evan’s Kitchen strives to include any dietary restrictions anyone might have, whether a gluten allergy or vegetarian diet. Peter’s said meals could be tailored to meet everyone’s needs.
The Kitchen will fully launch its services on March 28.
Price said she thinks of the family as a walking human interest story.
“The clientele at the daycare, you have parents that cannot necessarily afford the copay,” Price said. “They [the Evans’] don’t even want the copay; they tell them ‘don’t worry about it.’ You know, and that’s how a lot of daycares profit because they have parents that are paying the copay every day. It might be $10 or $14 a day for your child, and they’re telling parents, ‘Nah,’ don’t worry about it. Just bring your child, find a job, go to work, go to school, whatever you have to do for your family.”
Due to the hard work the family has put into the Covington community over the past decades, The President and Director of the Covington chapter of NAACP, Jerome Bowles, nominated them for an NAACP Award. They won the award back in November 2021.
The couple not only works at their businesses, but they also donate their time and resources around the area. They support the Old Timers Festival at Randolph Park by buying booths and helping other people to purchase booths.
“They have food, of course, and they sponsor other people, you know, and so they’re pretty widely known as in the Black community,” Price said.
The Evans’ have also been supporters of The Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky.
“For years, they would, at their at the church they belong to, show up early in the morning- I mean like two or three o’clock in the morning to make sandwiches,” Price said. “Because these folks, the criteria are something like you have to you can be here, but you have to leave by eight or nine o’clock in the morning. So once a week, they would get up dutifully and be mindful that they both have jobs, they’d go to the church, prepare the food and deliver it to the cold weather shelter.”
Price said the family creates opportunities for other people through their businesses.
“As far as creating jobs for the community, encouraging young Black students and Black women that may be single parents get paid and show this could happen for you, too,” Price said. “So that’s a huge thing, and it’s also very meaningful when you have a person of color that is a leader, that is in business, to have other young girls especially, to be able to observe that. And it’s not a fly-by-night. They’ve been doing it for over 20 years.”
