If you ask Taleea Moore what genre of food she would say that she and her son, DeAndre Moore Jr., serve at their food truck on 916 W. 23rd St., she might just slyly respond “ghetto!” before cracking up laughing.
Originally from Las Vegas, Nevada and Los Angeles, California, the mother-and-son pair are passionate about food. So passionate, in fact, that when they moved to the Austin area for her son’s career, they opened up Jive Turkey, a food trailer dedicated to serving healthy and hearty meals to the community.
DeAndre, a sophomore wide receiver on the University of Texas football team, is the first ever local student athlete to open up a food truck while competing in the NCAA. This is due to a 2021 NCAA provision that finally allows its student athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness (or NIL for short). He says, “I was blessed with the opportunity to receive NIL funds. I had always known I wanted to do something with my money, I just didn’t know what yet. When I got here, I was blessed to have the mom that I have and she was like ‘OK Dee, we’re gonna dive headfirst into this food truck business.’ I was like ‘Alright mom, I’m with you.’”
Their food truck is staffed by DeAndre’s mother, his twin sister, and his father; on some days, you might also catch his grandmother around. The family lives in Manor; DeAndre commutes to UT.
DeAndre’s high school days of training to become a top level athlete made Taleea realize that, after cooking for him for years, turkey was a much healthier choice of protein for her son than beef. “Honestly, I just loved cooking for my kids and [seeing] the reaction they had whenever they ate my food. So once I got here and I saw the Austin food scene, it was like a no-brainer. Let’s just go and offer something that we do not have in Austin,” she says.
Once you have the turkey taco plate, which comes with three fried tacos and home fries, it’s easy to see why DeAndre’s college friends rave about the truck. He says, “My teammates are always like ‘I need that for dinner!’ I know my momma food good, but I want everybody else to know that as well. So that was my biggest thing – let’s put out some good food that everybody loves.”
The taco plate is almost like a gourmet Taco Bell meal, but much lighter and without the subsequent stomach issues. You can call the truck’s genre “soul,” you can call it “Tex-Mex,” you can call it “American,” but you definitely gotta call it “delicious.”
“We got ground turkey, then we deep fry it, and we got all your fresh veggies on top so it’s however you want to name it. The taco is deep fried with the ground turkey inside and cheese,” explains Taleea. The truck also currently serves turkey burgers as well as a turkey bowl.
True to her self-described “ghetto” aesthetic, the truck serves a specialized cup that contains three flavors of Kool Aid with three separate straws. Taleea, who is diabetic, tells the story of some previous patrons who stormed off because they felt she didn’t put enough sugar as is traditional. “They said I couldn’t be Black [with that Kool Aid I gave them]! I was just like ‘I can’t tell! I’m diabetic, any amount of sugar is a lot for me!’” DeAndre, meanwhile, sips on water as his mother laughs. “I can’t drink that stuff!” he says about the truck’s sugary comfort drink. “I have to stay in shape!”
“It’s great to be the first to do this to show others, not only [at] UT Austin but around the country, that instead of doing all that other stuff, you can put your money into something and invest into it,” he says. “The biggest thing for me is being able to help people. Ever since I was younger, my mom had us go to the Salvation Army in Vegas to give back to the homeless. Coming from L.A., there’s plenty of homeless everywhere and sometimes I’d be able to give them money sparingly or give them food whenever I had it. It’s always been in me to want to give back and the Texas One Fund [which connects UT student-athletes to local nonprofits] helped us do that. I remember us going to children’s hospitals or elementary schools to help kids. We’re putting up clothes for the homeless [now] so it really allows me to give back to the community which I love.”
The family originally had set up their truck on East Riverside but have since moved to a new location in West Campus, closer to where DeAndre spends almost all his time. “Right after meetings ended at 5 for me, I came right over here to get some dinner. I know a lot of my teammates are stopping by a lot of times so it’s a great opportunity to get our name out and have some of the student body and faculty come to support,” he says.
Taleea’s ambitions go beyond the Austin truck; she hopes to eventually open up additional locations in her son’s hometowns of Las Vegas and Los Angeles. “Sometimes he says he’s from Vegas, sometimes he’s from L.A., sometimes he says he’s from Austin. It just depends on how he’s feeling that day!” she says, laughing.
When asked about his goals, DeAndre says, “We don’t ever want to stay the same. We want to continue to build and continue to go up so God willing, that’ll happen. But right now, we’re pretty content with where we’re at.” His mother adds, “My goal is to be somewhere stable where I have customers and I can just greet you and love you and I can just pour into you.”
This article appears in November 22 • 2024.