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Food + Grow + Us Kind Kitchen Group is a Durham nonprofit where food meets purpose. This isn't just a cooking club, and it isn't just a garden club either. The Root of It is where care becomes a skill, practiced on a plate and in the soil. Same foundation. Bigger future.
The Root of It
Oct 9, 2026 – Jun 11, 2027
6-month high school hospitality cohort. Weekly skill-building toward a culminating Menu Pitch with a Durham restaurant partner.
The Next Course (weekly cohort)
Oct 17, 2026 – Mar 30, 2027
🥚 How to Be a Good Egg = Food + Care 5 weeks. 5 ways to cook an egg — from a simple scramble to real cookies and beyond. Every technique unlocks a question: what does it mean to be a good egg, and how do you stay one in a carton of 12? 🐣 The arc moves from personal → interpersonal → community — starting with knowing yourself, moving to how you connect with others, and landing on how you show up in your community.
How to be a Good Egg - Cohort 1
Oct 21, 2026 – Dec 2, 2026 · 1 more date
You're the Main Ingredient - Cohort 1
Oct 22, 2026 – Dec 3, 2026 · 1 more date
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, paired with a hands-on density and viscosity experience.
October 24th Book Club
Oct 24, 2026
Reel by Kennedy Ryan, paired with a hands-on hand pies experience.
November 14th Book Club
Nov 14, 2026
The Art of Loving You by Natasha Bishop, paired with a hands-on cake decorating experience.
December 11th Book Club
Dec 11, 2026
January: While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams We open the year at the edge of the unknown. While Justice Sleeps follows Avery Keene, a young law clerk pushed into circumstances she never saw coming. She works with incomplete information, faces impossible choices, and keeps moving forward anyway. January asks the same of us. We don't know what the year will bring, but we begin. Culinary We start with yeast and bread dough. You can't see a rise happening, and you can't rush it. You mix, shape, and trust the process with incomplete information, which is exactly what Avery is asked to do. You'll leave knowing how to read a dough by feel and when it's ready to move forward.
A Chapter for Courage
Jan 3, 2027
February: Die for Me by Shirlene Obuobi In Die for Me, love and sacrifice keep getting tangled together. The question underneath the story is less "Who do we love?" and more "What are we willing to lose in order to be loved?" This Chapter is about the parts of ourselves that were never up for negotiation. Culinary We make chocolate truffles. You'll learn to make a ganache, which means emulsifying chocolate and cream into something smooth and stable. Then you'll shape and finish truffles that are entirely your own. Everyone starts with the same base, and no two finish the same.
A Chapter for Knowing Your Worth
Feb 7, 2027
March: If I Ruled the World by Amy DuBois Barnett After courage and self-worth, dreaming is the natural next step. The title alone asks us to imagine alternatives, not just to critique the world that exists but to envision the one we would create. March closes Part One: Becoming, and it's a month for possibility, imagination, and expansion. Culinary We work with egg whites. By whipping them from liquid to soft peaks to stiff meringue, you'll watch one ingredient multiply its own volume many times over. You'll learn what builds that structure, what collapses it, and how much room something can take up when it's given air.
A Chapter for Dreaming Bigger
Mar 7, 2027
April: The Revelation of Dionne Daphne by Mara Brock Akil Part Two: Voice begins here. Dionne's journey is rooted in discovery, and revelation asks us to uncover what was hidden, misunderstood, or buried beneath the surface. Once we've imagined who we want to become, we have to tell the truth about who we are. Culinary This month is clarified butter. You'll gently melt butter until it separates, then skim away the solids that cloud it, leaving something clear, golden, and able to take more heat. It's a technique about removing what hides the truth of an ingredient.
A Chapter for Telling the Truth
Apr 4, 2027
May: Daggermouth by H.M. Wolfe This Chapter is about language. Words can wound, protect, liberate, and expose. If April was about finding the truth, May is about deciding whether we're willing to say it out loud. Culinary We make a bright herb sauce with fresh spring herbs, acid, and good oil. You'll learn to balance sharp and bold flavors, so that the loudest ingredient makes the dish better instead of overpowering it. Flavor, like voice, carries responsibility.
A Chapter for Speaking Up
May 2, 2027
June: Seven Days in June by Tia Williams Eva and Shane have each spent years carrying versions of themselves that helped them survive. Their connection forces them to face old wounds, old identities, and old defenses. At its heart, this is a story about being recognized: not just loved, but seen. June closes Part Two: Voice. Culinary This month is composing a plate with early summer produce. You'll learn how placement, color, height, and negative space change how food is received, and you'll decide what the plate reveals first. You'll learn to present food with intention.
A Chapter for Being Seen
Jun 6, 2027
July: Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola Part Three: What We Carry begins with a book that invites honest conversation about emotional baggage, expectations, family dynamics, and the weight we carry that may not belong to us. Midsummer is the right moment to pause and ask what needs to be released. Culinary We cook with peak summer tomatoes and learn to reduce. As water cooks off, flavor concentrates, and what stays behind is stronger for what it released. You'll learn to judge a reduction by sight, smell, and spoon.
A Chapter for Letting Go
Jul 11, 2027
August: Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola This Chapter is alive with appetite: ambition, desire, pleasure, creativity, and longing. It isn't about permission from anyone else. It's about giving ourselves permission to want more. Culinary This month is sweet heat, made with chiles, honey, and late summer peaches. You'll build a glaze from scratch and adjust it spoonful by spoonful until it has exactly the balance you want. The lesson is in tasting, asking for more, and trusting your appetite.
A Chapter for Wanting More
Aug 1, 2027
September: The Secret World of Maggie Grey by Granger This theme grew out of a conversation about okra: okra water, gumbo, migration, memory, and food traditions. The "secret world" is the unseen knowledge that lives inside recipes, rituals, family stories, and inherited wisdom. September closes Part Three: What We Carry with a Chapter about ancestry, lineage, and cultural memory. Culinary Okra. We'll make okra water and cook gumbo, starting with a roux stirred low and slow until it reaches the color you want. You'll learn what okra does in a pot, why generations have cooked it this way, and how a recipe carries memory without being written down.
A Chapter for Remembering Our Roots
Sep 5, 2027
October: Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson Part Four: Wholeness begins with Enchanted, who has to learn to trust her own instincts after being taught to doubt them. So many of us can name a moment when we knew something was wrong but were encouraged to ignore ourselves. This Chapter is about reclaiming that inner voice. Culinary We cook with sweet potatoes, a North Carolina staple, and we do it without measurements. You'll roast and season by sight, touch, and taste, learning to recognize doneness and balance on your own. The recipe is your judgment.
A Chapter for Trusting Yourself
Oct 3, 2027
November: Restore Me by J.L. Seegars This is a gentler Chapter. It's not about fixing, improving, or becoming better. It's about restoration. After a year of exploring truth, desire, belonging, and self-trust, November is the place to reflect on healing. Culinary This month is broth. You'll build a restorative broth from aromatics and simmer it slowly so the pot gives back everything it holds. It's a quiet technique about patience, gentleness, and making something whole from parts.
A Chapter for Making Yourself Whole
Nov 7, 2027
December: The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah We close the year with Winter Santiaga, whose story raises hard questions about identity, status, survival, consequences, and what happens when the things we depend on disappear. It lets us ask the most important question of the year: when everything unnecessary falls away, what remains? Culinary We finish with candied citrus peel, using winter citrus. The part most people throw away becomes the thing worth keeping. You'll learn to blanch, simmer, and sugar the peel, and you'll leave with something that lasts long after the fruit is gone.
A Chapter for What Remains
Dec 5, 2027