Shauna Anderson is a Native American and African-American restaurateur and author whose work has been accepted into the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History.[1]

Early life

Anderson was born in Washington, D.C. to Geneva Anderson, a professional singer and piano player and Walter Christopher Holmes, a saxophone player.[2] She was raised by her maternal grandmother, Virginia Battle, who taught her how to clean pig intestines.

Career

Shauna Anderson worked as an Economic Statistician with the Internal Revenue Service for 15 years. In 1995, Shauna Anderson and store manager Angela Holmes used the phone book and called restaurants to determine if there was a market for cleaned chitterlings. Shauna Anderson then submitted documents to the USDA, establishing the standards for selling and shipping cleaned chitterlings. With USDA approval, the Chitlin Market opened its doors in September 1995.[3]

As their customer base grew, the Chitlin Market added a physical location. The first operation was a storefront located in Mount Rainier MD. The market expanded into selling fully prepared foods-ready to cook along with their accompaniments such as crab imperial, roasted chicken, corn pudding, red beans, smoked sausage, and southern collard greens. The Chitlin Market also offered catering to churches. After 9 months, The Chitlin Market relocated to a larger storefront in Hyattsville, MD.[4]

After Guts and Glory was published in the Washington Post in 1997, sales increased. In 2000, Shauna Anderson decided to purchase a building, zoned commercial, around the corner from the Hyattsville, MD store. Elizabeth Latrobe Place, great granddaughter of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, was hired by The Chitlin Market to write the memoirs of Shauna Anderson, founder of the Chitlin Market. Place wrote the book "Offal Great – A Memoir from the Queen of Chitlins" after spending time in the store watching daily operations and capturing stories from founder Shauna Anderson.[5]

In April 2003, Chitlins were "authenticated as a treasure by the Smithsonian Institution" and thus, they asked The Chitlin Market to contribute to their exhibit on African American cuisine. The Chitlin Market turned over several of its documents and artifacts to be preserved.[6]

While the new location was being renovated, the Chitlin Market operated from a mobile food trailer. In 2007, after an ABC show used The Chitlin Market as a prop for a dangerous neighborhood, then county executive Jack B. Johnson denounced the show “When the president [in] the show gets out of a car and is in front of a restaurant that advertises chitlins and pork chops in today’s America, what any right-thinking American knows is we are harking back to an age-old inability of this country to celebrate the leadership and achievement of African-Americans and other diverse people in this country.”[7]  Peter Shapiro, then county council member said the store was used to promote ABC’s “stereotype of a poor, dangerous black neighborhood."[7] Just after the restaurant was complete and opened and serving customers, Prince Georges County and the MNCPPC rezoned the restaurant to residential.[7] The Chitlin Market now operates exclusively online.

Books

• Anderson, Shauna; Place, Elizabeth, Offal Great-A Memoir from the Queen of Chitlins, Hyattsville, MD 2006. ISBN 978-0-9792878-0-0

References

• Trescott, Jacqueline (April 23, 2003). "Guts Get Some Overdue Glory: Chitlin Merchant's Gift Feeds Museum's Plans." The Washington Post.
• Lewis, Nicole. "Shauna Anderson is using real estate to create multiple streams of income". Black Enterprise Magazine.
• Randle, Leila. "Newsletter May 2003". Soul Family Travels. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
• Nicholls, Walter. "Guts to Glory". www.washingtonpost.com. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
• Delaney, Arthur. "Queen of Chitlins wages war on PG County Council". www.thehill.com. The Hill. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
• "Maryland Businesswoman Sues County". Global Wire. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
• Meyer, Eugene. "Cashing in on Chitlins". www.washingtonpost.com. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
• Merida, Kevin (May 5, 2002). ""Gut Instinct Chitlins online seemed like a good idea at the time. And it still does"". The Washington Post.

External link

• Shauna Anderson website