For many, celebrating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday brings to mind public service and work for civil rights.
But for some in Austin, it brings to mind pie.
Yep. Pie.
The same pie you hear about in "mom, baseball and apple ... ."
Good old pie and good old fashioned pie socials.
"The first time I heard it I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard," says Toni Tipton-Martin, founder of the Sande Youth Project. "I just did not put those two together."
But after doing some research, Tipton-Martin quickly became a believer in the new movement in Austin to make pies and pie socials the unofficial food of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
"Every other food has a holiday associated with it," Tipton-Martin says. "Thanksgiving has turkey. We celebrate Easter with eggs and spring foods. The Chinese new year has certain foods. But in all of these years, we still hadn't arrived at the right food for the King holiday."
She says pie socials -- full of homemade pies and happy people -- are a good symbol for King's work toward non-violent solutions to serious problems.
"Plus, the idea of everyone having a piece of the pie," she says. "It's a cliche, but how appropriate.
"After I did some research I started to see the connection between the community out over the idea of having a piece of pie together," she says. "We wanted every single person in Austin and ultimately across the country to celebrate by sharing pie with someone else. It's a very simple thing to do."
On Monday, Tipton-Martin and others were busy selling $5 pieces of pie at the Pies4All tent at the cultural celebration Huston Tillotson University. Proceeds go to the Limerick Frazier house at 13th Street and Interstate 35. Tipton-Martin and others hope to turn the house into a community culinary center for at-risk kids.
"Mighty fine pie for a mighty fine project," says Rhonda Mac, who bought a piece of coconut cream pie for herself and a piece of pecan pie for her daughter. "We love pie, so we are going to enjoy it and then we can feel good because we did help out a pretty good cause."
