Lets cook Kenyan meals

Social media is fun, a connector, and a great marketing tool; on the other hand, social media has also elevated negative behavior like bullying and fraud into a whole new dimension. But Pamellah Oduor, has found a way to bring like-minded people together and sell Kenyan meals to the world through the Let’s Cook Kenyan Meals group on Facebook.

“I am passionate about food, and I love cooking. I used to be in an international cooking group, but I did not like what they would post. The meals posted there were hardly common in Kenya. So in 2013, I was joking with a friend about starting a group that would focus on authentic Kenyan foods. We thought of names, and Let’s Cook Kenyan Meals was born”,  says Pamellah.

The main aim of the Let’s Cook Kenyan Meals group is to take Kenyans back to the kitchen and ensure they are cooking healthy meals. Pamellah wants to ensure meals in Kenya become a central point where the family can gather and talk while enjoying a warm healthy meal. “A lot of people who could afford to, we're excited about eating out, unhealthy foods like burgers, pizzas, and chips. There was also an increase in lifestyle diseases. In 2015, when the group hit 75,000 members, I quit my job as a teller at a local bank to concentrate on catering, which was my side hustle." Pamellah says.

According to Pamellah, together with her husband, they run Spice Land catering firm that started by catering for a few relatives. She also conducts cooking training on the condition that a trainee starts their own catering business. Pamellah offers two types of training; for a session of 2-3 hours, she trains a beginner who doesn't know how to cook for Ksh 2, 000. The second one is offered to people looking to join the catering world but not sure how to start and costs Ksh 30,000 for 10 days.

“I want my trainers to go into the market as employers and not employees. At SpiceLand firm I have four employees". She adds.

Pamellah shares her recipes and though not a trained chef, she can see the excitement of members trying out the recipes. Her recipes are very simple for anyone to follow because she does not incorporate quantities. "Quantities in recipes confuse a lot of people and also require them to buy a weighing scale or measuring products. I also encourage members to share with the group new recipes they have tried. Through the group, I have a database of others who are cooking catering services and I can link them to potential clients", she says.

To ensure there is harmony in the group Pamellah ensures that members clearly understand the aim of the group. She also has themes for each day to keep members active; motivational Monday, testimonials Tuesday, wake up Wednesday, thrilling Thursday, flour Friday, super Saturday, and family Sunday. The group has an average of 250 people joining each day. 

"I have to approve each post which is overwhelming because members expect me to be online throughout the day to approve their posts. I also encourage members to report posts/comments that are against the group goals or members abusing others". She says.

Currently, the Let’s Cook Kenyan Meals group has grown beyond Pamellah’s expectation with over 1.5 million members, and 5.3 interactions. She believes Facebook is the future of any market. “On this page, I have run promotions for great corporations like Chibundiro, Daima Yoghurt, EcoZoom East Africa, Jikokoa, and Pretty Home Interior Decor.

In 2017, Chris Cox, Facebook Chief Product Officer told TechCrunch about the company’s new milestone of 2 billion monthly active users thirteen years after launching. Facebook’s growth for the last half-decade has been fueled by the developing world. The company has relentlessly optimized its app for cheap Android smartphones and low-bandwidth connections. It has added 746 million users in Asia and the Rest of the World region since hitting 1 billion users total. Meanwhile, it only added 41 million in the U.S. and Canada.

Pamellah was nominated in the Facebook Community Leadership Program (FCLP) that is addressing the need to identify community leaders. Facebook saw firsthand how technology was empowering leaders around the world to take action and bring their communities closer together. In February 2014, they introduced a global initiative that gives over 100 participants from around the world support, tools, funding, and the belief in themselves that they need to best lead their communities.

According to Pamellah, Facebook had requested group admins who were changing people's lives and not making an income from it to apply for Facebook Community Leadership Program (FCLP). 6,000 people applied for the program from all over the world. “We had to go through a thorough interview process that included a lifestyle audit to ensure the information submitted was factual. They were to identify leaders with a strong and clear vision for their community”, she says.

The 115 participants that emerged winners started the fellowship from the 9th - 12th October at Facebook headquarters in California. The participants included 100 fellows, 10 youths fellows (those are young people below 18 years), and 5 residencies. The five community leaders in residence, will each be awarded up to $1,000,000 to fund their community initiative, while the 105 fellows and youth participants will receive up to $50,000 each to be used for their community initiative.  

The Facebook Community Leadership Program has three main elements: Educational curriculum, which is designed around leadership development, strategic community engagement, and technical skills. Funding where every participant will receive financial support for their offline community-building activities. Finally, a network of support where participants can meet community-building experts, Facebook leadership, and other FCLP participants. They will be supported by Facebook professionals and make connections with local experts, organizations, and thought leaders.

"During the visit, we got to create synergies where if you are working in the food field I team up with farmers. I train them on how to add value to their crops like if you have too many tomatoes, how to make tomato paste. We are supposed to work together from different parts of the world. We will also be working very closely with Facebook for project implementation for the next one year", says Pamellah.

Pamellah Oduor is the founder of the Let’s Cook Kenyan Meals group.

The next date with Facebook will be a regional meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa in February 2019. Pamela hopes to invest her $50,000 in Cook Me a Living, a project she has run for a while. The project empowers women and the youth, mainly the boy child. Together with the farmers club, they have been helping at Makadara boys center (Makadara Boys Center rehabilitates and educates street children). The center has been adopted by the Let's Cook Kenyan Meals group that has been clothing, paying school fees, and feeding the boys. 

"These are street boys, and the moment they are not well taken care of, they will go back to the streets. For women, we train and encourage them to make a living out of selling local foods like Chapati and Samosas."

During the meeting at Facebook headquarters, Pamellah understood clearly that Kenyans meals were still unknown around the world. Now, she has embarked on a new journey to ensure every town in Kenya has a restaurant dedicated to cooking authentic Kenyan meals only. "I am starting a campaign to ensure that githeri, and the burger is not on the same menu, I just need one restaurant in each town. Githeri is a Kenyan traditional meal of maize and legumes, mostly beans of any type mixed and boiled together. Once I am done with Kenya, I will drive this campaign to other countries. I have already made connections, and people are willing to help in the same," says Pamellah. 

Tourist firms in France and USA are also selling the idea of cooking with Pam to potential tourists. This is a new way of selling Kenya to the world.

"This is a pretty new idea, so I will not say much because it has not yet been implemented. But the idea is that tourists from different countries will have a cooking session with me to learn a bit about how Kenyan meals are made. Cooking is not a chore but an adventure. Food brings people together.", she says finally.

Pamellah hopes that people will take advantage of social media and use it for the good of their communities.