ESTABLISHED 2020
Good food connects us.
Discovery moves us forward.
Black Cupboard supports the economic development, visibility, ownership retention, growth, and commercial success of Black-owned food and beverage businesses across the African diaspora.
We connect curious eaters to packaged foods, beverages, and the entrepreneurs behind them through a culinary magazine and a searchable grocery directory. Good food opens the door. The people and stories behind it give us a reason to stay.
OUR ROOTS. OUR RESOURCEFULNESS.
The story
behind our logo.
Why is your logo a watermelon and a black-eyed pea? Isn’t that a racist stereotype?
Our logo honors a history of resourcefulness, enterprise, and cultural connection.
Watermelon has deep African roots. After the Civil War, newly freed African Americans grew and sold watermelons to support themselves and their families. The fruit became a symbol of freedom and self-sufficiency. Racist imagery turned that independence into a caricature intended to demean Black people.
For Black Cupboard, the watermelon represents Black entrepreneurship and the resourcefulness of those who built livelihoods after emancipation. We pay homage to our ancestors’ entrepreneurial spirit by finding and celebrating Black-owned food businesses and manufacturers today.
The black-eyed pea is a variety of cowpea, an African crop with a long history in West African foodways. Cowpea seeds crossed the Atlantic during the transatlantic slave trade, and black-eyed peas became part of the food traditions that enslaved Africans and their descendants sustained in the Americas.
Together, these seeds represent our unbroken ties and continuing connection to our ancestral homeland and culture.
Through food we create, we commune, we celebrate, and we continue to connect.
What belongs in the cupboard.
Black Cupboard’s independent standard considers ownership, operation and control separately. It is inspired by NMSDC’s framework, uses our own 50% ownership threshold, and does not imply NMSDC certification. NMSDC’s framework ↗
Black-owned, operated, and controlled.
Our independent eligibility standard requires at least 50% Black ownership, Black operation, and Black control. We celebrate the entrepreneurs turning ideas and family traditions into the things we bring home.
Food with a story.
From everyday staples to something wonderfully unexpected, discover products with people, place, and culture at their heart.
A little room for discovery.
Meet a maker. Try an ingredient. Share something good. Our cupboard makes connections across the African diaspora, one discovery at a time.
Black Cupboard was established in 2020 by Quincy LeNear Gossfield. The project brings culinary curiosity, visual storytelling, and a commitment to Black economic opportunity to the same table.
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