Kee’s Loaded Kitchen
Kiauna (Kee) Nelson, was born in 1980 to parents who were both addicts; her father was addicted to crack, while her mother was addicted to opioids. By the time she was eight or nine years old, she was navigating life alone as her parents at home left her with little adult support.
“Things started changing in my life when I was around 8 or 9,” said Nelson. It was at this age when she realized that she would have to find ways to sustain herself without her parents. “I was mostly getting dropped off to my aunts and my cousins and was going to the store by myself, catching the bus by myself,” said Nelson.
Nelson's family was also involved with gangs, with her father being a part of an infamous gang called the Bloods before Nelson was born. Her cousins and aunts were also gang-affiliated, which meant nearly every home she visited had gang members' influence. This gave her exposure to gang life which led her to join the Woodlawn Park Bloods when she was around 14 years old.
At the same time when she joined the gang, Nelson also turned to selling drugs in order to pay for basic essentials like school clothes, school supplies and food after finding herself without financial stability from her family. As she spent more time with the gang, Nelson recognized a similar pattern: many members had been driven to gangs and drug dealing because of their need for money.
“We were all here because of the crack epidemic. All of our parents got subjected to drugs which left us looking for family, looking for money, and looking for money to survive. This is when the drugs and gangs starts to grow,” said Nelson.
While she was in a gang, she found community with kids in similar situations as her. “You go outside, there are other kids your age whose parents could be on drugs, whose parents could be at work, and they parents could be dead. We were all just trying to get some money.”
During this time, Nelson also experienced significant trauma and witnessed the death of many of her friends. “It was like an 80s movie. We was running up to cars, we were getting shot at everyday. A lot of my friends were murdered. I don’t have tears left. I was in funerals my entire childhood,” said Nelson.
For around 10 years from 1994 to 2004 she was an active member of the Woodlawn Park Bloods and was also dealing drugs until she was eventually caught by police. Her boyfriend at the time was caught selling drugs and shortly after she was also caught dealing cocaine in Vancouver, Washington.
Nelson was sentenced to one year in prison in Washington, but was released after serving around seven months through a system in the Washington Department of Corrections called Earned Release Time for nonviolent incarcerated people.
While it is not known when she had her first child, she found out that she was pregnant with her second child in prison. She set out to never go back to prison again, and to get out as soon as possible in order to turn her life around. She described prison as a place that can “really mess your head up. It can really put you in a dark place if you let it.”
As soon as she was released in 2011, she enrolled in Portland Community College to study business administration at the age of 31 with hopes of opening up a business which would later be known as Kee’s #Loaded Kitchen. During the time she was in school, she got pregnant two more times, growing her family from two children to four children. However, none of the fathers wanted to support the children or the family both financially and emotionally.
After this, Kee realized during her third year of college in 2013 that she needed to start Kee’s #Loaded Kitchen as soon as possible to support her growing family. “I even went cellibate for well over five years. That's how serious I was about changing my life. I could have no distractions,” said Nelson. Nelson also said she “chose not to be a victim.” She was determined to rebuild her life, and gave up many comforts in order to do so.
Two months after Nelson graduated college, the business was born. However it looked much different than how it looks today. Inspired by soul food plates that she saw on social media, Kee’s #Loaded Kitchen first started in her apartment, selling soul food plates to her neighbors. She eventually began using social media in order to boost her popularity, which attracted many more customers.
As the demand increased, she saw that customers would often stay outside of her home to finish eating instead of taking the food back to their own home. “People were outside my house eating, they would not drive off … the block got crazy,” recalls Nelson. Seeing this, she spent the next two years working towards a larger space to accommodate the growing demands. In 2016, Kee’s #Loaded Kitchen food cart was open for business in northeast Portland.
Although Nelson juggled school, a business and a family as a single mother, she attributes the creation of Kee’s #Loaded Kitchen to the men who chose not to be involved in raising her children.
Nelson says that after her third pregnancy, the father of that child made it clear that he did not want to be involved in the child's life. But Nelson says that “I think if he would've taken care of the baby and accepted him maybe, in a world, wanted to be a family or a father, there would be no Kee’s Loaded Kitchen.”
But the sacrifices as well as unwavering determination were also key factors in the business’s success. “My goal is to create generational wealth for my kids, to work hard and to make sacrifices. I have to sacrifice or I wouldn’t be as successful. Kee’s #Loaded Kitchen would have died a long time ago if I wasn’t so determined and motivated to be great.”
Nelson’s food cart has become a notable Portland food destination, recognized for its generous portions with accessible prices. Rather than individual portions, the cart specializes in family-style plates that weigh an average of four pounds for the regular dinner plates. Their menu features soul food classics like fried catfish, mac and cheese and potato salad.
The food cart in 2018 and 2019 received awards for the best food cart in Portland, and draws lines of up to two hours long on busy days. Through her business, Nelson also supports the local youth by providing free resources such as free backpacks and shoes for students preparing for school.
She hopes that these efforts can provide students with resources to continue their education and avoid barriers that she faced as a child growing up. When you’re in the gang life you don't really know about, you might not even touch high school for a couple of months” she added “maybe we can stop somebody even if it's one person if we can provide what they need for high school.”
Nelson's biggest advice to young entrepreneurs is to “never give up. I can’t tell you how many doors have been slammed in my face, but I always kept moving and always kept my head up.” Today, Nelson hopes her legacy inspires “thousands and thousands of single mothers to open small businesses, and be a strong force in children’s lives.”
Written by Ansley Kang, Journalism 2026