Meet Javion Napier, who’s running his own hot dog stand to raise money for the homeless
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Someday, he hopes to open his own hole-in-the wall barbecue shack where he can wow customers with his rib-smoking prowess.
But for now, Javion Napier — a 16-year-old sophomore at Wichita South High School — is plenty busy working two restaurant jobs, cooking for his family, running his own hot dog stand to raise money for the homeless and managing his growing celebrity.
Over the past several months, as news of his good deeds spread around town, he’s become recognizable enough that he can’t even shop at Walmart in peace.
“Every time I go, people run up to me and say, ‘Are you the hot dog kid? How do we book you?’” he said. “And I’m just there to shop. I just need a pound of hamburger.”
Javion is the founder and owner of J&B Hot Dog Stand, a business he started out of his driveway near Lincoln and Woodlawn with the goal of raising money to donate to the homeless in Wichita. Last year, the local news heard about his venture and featured him on the air. His reputation and reach has grown since then. (And so has his collection of tools: Javion now has six grills, two smokers, a deep fryer, a bread proofer and a hot box.)
These days, Javion has outgrown his driveway, and when he sets up his hot dog stand, it’s usually in parking lots of local businesses. He’s raised about $8,000 to date, he estimates, grilling and serving hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, polish sausage and more with the help of his mom, aunts, sister and two cousins, who pitch in baked goods, take money and bag up food.
At Thanksgiving, he cooked a big meal for people in need at HumanKind Ministries. And on Saturday, he hosted the J&B Hot Dog Stand Outstanding Wichita Youth Award Ceremony, which honored other inspiring local young people. Napier catered the event, too, preparing a buffet dinner that included ribs, hot dogs, chicken, chili, corn on the cob, green beans and mac and cheese.
His interest in food started, he said, when he was 7 years old and would cook with his father, Jeremy Napier. But when Javion was 10, his father died in a hit-and-run accident. Javion’s interest in food service resumed when he was in seventh grade and started selling lemonade at a nearby car wash to raise money for the less fortunate. Then he moved on to food. His philanthropy took off from there.
Javion now has two part-time jobs cooking in restaurants: One at Deano’s Grill & Tapworks at 9747 E. 21st St. and one at Denny’s.
At home, his garage is stuffed to almost overflowing with everything he needs to pull off big catering jobs, including all those grills and smokers and lots of professional catering equipment. He’s in talks to take on several more high-profile caterings around town, and his smile grows when he talks about it.
“I just like meeting all the different people,” he says.
This story was originally published February 27, 2022 at 6:19 AM.
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