Martha Brooks Culinary Arts Scholarship Fund

Martha Brooks is my mother and the inspiration behind the scholarship and the fund. She was an Executive Chef in the mid to late 70’s and was the first black and first woman Executive Chef at a major hotel chain in OKC. She continued to break glass ceilings in the culinary industry. She started my love of baking when I was 6 years old by teaching me how to make my own slice and bake cookies and I’ve been baking ever since. Watching her run many hotel kitchens, lead successful crews and teach classes at the local technology centers to young students, inspired me to start the scholarship in her name to continue the legacy. The scholarship will launch on 3/24/2024, her 90th birthday. My goal is to have an annual scholarship and hold fundraising events locally as well. After she retired as a Chef, she started working for the HeadStart Program planning the menus for the headstart locations ensuring that the kids always had a balanced, nutritional diet and that’s before retirement again at the age of 81. As you can see, her passion was not only cooking and becoming a chef but her passion to help her community has always been her first thought. Having this fund will help continue the love of community and the llove of cooking and baking for many youth in the future. She is 89 years old now and still cooking from scratch and sharing her experiences with her grandkids and great grandkids.