Black Girls Cook is a Miami and Baltimore-based nonprofit helping young girls embrace the farm-to-table concept while also learning about Black Diaspora history. Founder Nichole and her 6-year-old daughter Madison share how the nonprofit has helped more than 3,500 girls and their families learn the importance of cooking and eating healthier meals. Also, Nichole’s student Logan and her mom Winifred share how the organization has helped Logan’s confidence blossom. Watch till the end for a huge surprise for Black Girls Cook!
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– Welcome back y’all! In recognition of Black History Month, we are continuing to shine a light on extraordinary people making a difference in the African-American community. When our next guest realized how much more common it was for Black women to develop illnesses like heart disease and diabetes than people outside her community,
She knew she had to do something about it and she did. So she launched a kids cooking program to get young people in her neighborhood on a healthier track. I wish I would’ve had her in my neighborhood growing up. That makes her a rad human, y’all. Alright y’all from “Black Girls Cook”, let’s say hello to Nicole and her favorite little helper, her daughter, Madison. Give it up, y’all! It’s alright. You could be nervous. So Madison, do you cook? – Yes. – You do? I don’t. (laughter) I wish I’d have had like somebody in my life like that to really teach, taught me how to cook whenever I was a kid. That would’ve been awesome. I’d be in better shape now.
This is inspiring Nicole, though. For “Black Girls Cook” like what inspired you to do this? It was before Madison, right? – Definitely before Madison, when I first started, I always had a passion for cooking. So initially I wanted to get into the kitchen space and teach girls just how to prepare
Their own favorite meals. And over time and doing research, I realized that four out five Black women definitely develop health issues related to the lack of food education, like diabetes and high blood pressure. So my response to making sure the next generation can really change that statistic, we created “Black Girls Cook”.
– It’s incredible. I was telling her before the show started, I was like, “I wish I’d have had this,” because it’s for eight to 15-year-old girls, right? – Yes. We serve girls between eight through 15. We have three core programs. We have a culinary program, baking and gardening.
All of our recipes infuses Black diaspora history. So girls understand the reason why a lot of food we eat today became part of everyday cuisine because of things that was brought to America through the translate slave trade. In particular, one of my favorite things to talk about is food stereotypes.
We talk about watermelon and the negative history behind watermelon and they get to learn that watermelon was a fruit that we consider freedom fruit because the former enslaved grouped watermelon and sold watermelon. – Yeah. – As a way for financial freedom to their families. – I didn’t know that! – See?
– I just like watermelon! I didn’t know that either. – They get such a bad wrap! So it’s good for them to understand a lot of those foods really have a lot of power to them. – Absolutely, the history behind that. All I know is my family, we can’t keep it in the house. It’s like their favorite treat.
Madison, what’s your favorite part about cooking? – I like um… – Or what’s your favorite thing to cook? Do you have a favorite? – Mm-hmm. – What is it? – I like grilled cheese ’cause it’s easy. (laughter) – I like making salmon and chicken in the air fryer and I… – You make salmon? Me too. (laughter) I don’t, I need your help. I could be your sous chef. So how does the program work for girls? How did they find out about it? How do you reach these girls? – So, believe it or not, we actually celebrate 10 years in March. – [Kelly] Congratulations! – Over the last 10 years, we’ve impacted over like 3,500 girls and their families throughout our programming. We’re operating right now in both Baltimore and Miami. And it’s a lot of skills the girls get to learn. It’s like they understand how to prepare these meals,
But they also learn time management. They learn interpersonal skills, they learn how to- – Math is at play there. Yeah. – And also sets the satisfaction, even if they burn a dish and they don’t eat it, they know next time, “Okay, I know I did X, Y, Z correctly,
But the recipe said 20 minutes. Next time I’m gonna do 15 minutes to check and see.” So that impact with them a lot of the skills they learn in the kitchen with us. – Yeah. – They take to their everyday lives, share with their families.
And I also have some girls who have been through the program who has come back that now teach for us. So it’s like a full circle moment. – Oh, that’s so cool! Joining us now is one of her students, Logan along with Logan’s mama, Winifred. Give it up! So Logan, I’m gonna start with you. Like, were you into cooking before? – So I wasn’t really like in into cooking when I first started. It was just more something like I just did on the side. But once I went to “Black Girls Cook”, it was something
That like I really wanted to do. – Yeah. – And I made sweet potato pound cake. – Sure. – It was delicious. – I totally never made that. – And what I love about cooking is expressing myself, especially through my plating. – Yeah. – Because it just
Gives me so much joy to cook. – Yeah, I love that. It’s so good for you at such a young age. So, but you’re the main chef at home, right? – Yeah. – I hope my daughter is you. (laughter) – So my mom is not a big cooker and when she does cook she does cook like vegan dishes, which I like.
But I’m the primary cook. Actually this past Thanksgiving I made my first Thanksgiving dinner. – I didn’t do that until I was like in my thirties. That’s amazing! – I made turkey, sweet potato casserole. – Wow! – Mac and cheese. – Yes. – Banana bread and collard greens. – Yes. Oh my god, you did the yam thing with the marshmallow. It’s my favorite one my sister makes.
– Yeah. So just seeing the joy on my parents’ face when like they eat my foods really brings me the most joy about my cooking. – It’s, I can’t, I wanna have that joy when my daughter starts cooking in my house. So Winifred, this has taught more than just cooking skills, right?
– Yes. Yes. So Logan has dyslexia and oftentimes she’s afraid to read out loud. But during “Black Girls Cook”, she volunteered to read out loud. So that was huge. – Yes, – Yes, yes. – That’s a huge thing. – Yes, yes. – It’s the stress that happens. – The stress, the anxiety with it. And so I just saw her confidence blossom and then she likes to do mental math, like when she’s doing the recipe, like, dabbling it up and everything.
Because she was like, “I can do it in my head.” So it was just really impactful. And she’s been attending a private dyslexia school since elementary, so it’s very important for her to be around girls that look like her and to also see Black chefs and then to learn from an African diaspora.
That meant a lot to me. And I also lost my mom years ago and she fell sick because she wasn’t eating healthy. So it was very important to me that Logan learns, yes, there’s my mom and that’s a picture after she had a stroke.
So it was very important to me that Logan learns what it means when you put food in your body, how it can affect you, yes. – Yeah. Absolutely. Also amazing that you go to a school with other Dyslexic kids. That’s amazing. – Yes. – Yeah, because that’s a whole different, that’s why it’s really important, like if your kid is struggling to find something you feel confident at, and this is cooking obviously for you as well. That’s incredible.
So you tell Nicole what this program has meant for you and your family. – Oh my gosh! I’m gonna turn to look at you, girl. I’m not, but I just wanna say thank you because you allowed Logan to open up and really dig into something that she enjoys.
And just so you know, not only was it the training, but they also sent utility, like the utensils rather. And also groceries. – During the pandemic? – During the pandemic at a time when wow. We really appreciated that. So I just wanna tell you to keep doing what you’re doing
And we love and appreciate you. – You wanna say anything? – I wanted to say thank you so much for this opportunity to grow with other girls. I think your work is amazing. I know I personally took away from a lot of it. I learned how to look at the fat and sugar content in food
And I made great friendships and I actually started thinking about doing culinary as a career. – Oh, wow! – Because of “Black Girls Cook” and the impact it made on my cooking experience. So thank you. – That’s amazing! – That’s so sweet. – No one’s gonna never want food. It’s a great industry to get into. Well, ConAgra believes everybody deserves consistent access to nutritious food. And when they heard how Nicole was empowering young girls of color through culinary arts and urban farming, they wanted to help.
So they’re donating $10,000 to “Black Girls Cook.” – What a surprise! – We’ll be right back!