The Brownsville Community Culinary Center (BCCC)
Stories of Impact
The Brownsville Community Culinary Center (BCCC) was founded in 2015 to increase access to healthy food, nutritional education, and career and personal development opportunities.
The Center provides free, culinary vocational training to Brownsville residents through its culinary training program. The Center’s multi-week culinary workshops provide neighborhood youth with the opportunity to learn culinary skills alongside industry professionals. And it provides a safe, comfortable space where neighbors can access fresh, healthy, affordable, culturally relevant foods.
At the Brownsville Community Culinary Center, we know that good food can spark powerful positive changes in the health and overall well-being of people, so we are thrilled to be honored with the Brooklyn Org Spark Prize, which is rooted in the idea of sparking transformational change in communities.Alexis Aquino, Executive Director and Executive Chef at the Brownsville Community Culinary Center
As a 2025 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize winner, the Brownsville Community Culinary Center is proving that food can nourish both bodies and futures. BCCC is more than a kitchen—it’s a place where neighbors gather, young people gain skills, and new careers begin.
“I walked through the doors of BCCC not knowing where my life was headed. I had just returned home after seven years of incarceration, and like so many people in that position, I was stepping into a world that wasn’t exactly welcoming. I knew I wanted to rebuild, but I didn’t know how,” Markees Pruitt, Sous Chef and Kitchen Manager at the Brownsville Community Culinary Center, shared. “BCCC changed that. It gave me not just a place to learn but a place to belong.”
From our culinary training program that opens career pathways, to our Food is Medicine initiative, we are excited to use the Brooklyn Org Spark Prize to expand our reach in Brownsville and increase the longevity and quality of life of our neighbors.Alexis Aquino, Executive Director and Executive Chef at the Brownsville Community Culinary Center
The Brooklyn Org Spark Prize will support BCCC in “expanding our reach in Brownsville and increasing the longevity and quality of life of our neighbors,” said Alexis Aquino, Executive Director and Executive Chef at the Brownsville Community Culinary Center.
Pruitt shared, “This work is very personal for me. I know what it’s like to need a second chance. I stand here today because many people believed in me at BCCC. They gave me the space to grow, to learn, to become the person I am today. And now, I get to pay that forward, every single day.”