KANSAS CITY, Mo — This holidays season, you can help give a voice to immigrant women living in Kansas City by purchasing authentic handmade tamales.
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The Tamale Kitchen was founded by Becky Gripp nearly seven years ago and it’s helping women all across Kansas City develop important business skills while keeping their family recipes alive.
"I honestly believe that everyone deserves to have an opportunity and that's all that's all these women wanted, an opportunity to do things for their family and contribute to their church and the community," Gripp said.
Tamale Kitchen currently employees two full-time cooks including Gigi, who proudly makes tamales using recipes passed down by her Mexican family and the freshest ingredients available in KCK Mexican meat markets.
"We don’t offend anyone we are just showing our culture," Gigi explained. "We make them homemade and as if we were making them for our family, our kids or our husbands."
Gigi says it takes a couple of hours to make at least 100 tamales from start to finish and they can make about a thousand tamales a day. Over the years, the organization has grown and now has a kitchen space inside Trinity United Methodist Church in KCK and a new food truck, giving customers a taste of the American dream with each bite.
"The women that work with us, they are learning, they are gaining their voice, they're gaining confidence, and gaining much more than just an opportunity to work at a livable wage," Gripp said. "So much of our equipment has been donated from different places. So we know there's things that we need to upgrade, we would love to have a retail space at some point."
With the season of giving officially here, they want that momentum to continue. Orders can be made now through their website, a couple day's notice is preferred to meet demand.
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