“I Can’t Thank You Enough” 

Born and raised on the Lower East Side, Valerie Galindo remembers waiting in homeless shelters with her pregnant mother and siblings until they finally secured an apartment when she was seven. The Lower Eastside Girls Club became her refuge from the streets, where she discovered her passion for cooking. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of Education, Valerie returned to the Girls Club as a culinary instructor, determined to introduce healthy cooking to a community where “all the girls know is unhealthy cooking.”

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Transcript: 

Valerie Galindo:  

My mom was born and raised in the Lower East Side as well, as me and my three other siblings. We will go into the shelter and she was like, ‘We have to sit in this facility, and we have to wait as many days as we possibly can so we could get shelter and board.’

And my mom was pregnant of my younger sister and she would have me and my oldest sister. And I would lean my head on one thigh and my sister on another and she would guard our things until we were sent to a place.

I remember we got the apartment when I was seven years old.

Here in the community, they didn’t have anything really much for girls, so we would have to just literally play on the streets.

My mom had heard about the Girls Club. I was just like, ‘You know what? This is gonna get me out of the streets. This is gonna get me to do something.’

Because of Girls Club, I found my passion.

I heard about the Culinary Institute of Education. One of my instructors, Milady Ramirez, was just like, ‘Yeah. I think you should register.’ And she helped me register and got me in.

And I was just like, ‘You know what? I wanna get back to the Girls Club. I wanna get back in a healthier way because coming from this community, all the girls know is unhealthy cooking.’

Fried food, you have a lot of supermarkets that don’t sell the best ingredients.

And so, we would have chickpeas and make it into hummus and introduce them to raw vegetables and learn about quinoa and brown rice.

And I’ve noticed now because of the pandemic that the families actually really need food.

So I was just like, ‘You know what I have to help my community.’

You know? This is what brought me to where I’m at today.

We have to continue this.

And I decided to come in, try to do meals, incorporate more vegetables in it, more grains. So that way they understand that, you know, this is better for you. And we will come here every single day and then distribute the food.

So they just kept coming more and more and more.

To everyone who made this possible, thank you. I can’t thank you enough.

Honestly, from the bottom of my heart. I’m talking to you from being here from the very, very beginning. Like, this is a home, and if we have it, we would like to give it to you.

Anything, we’re here. We’re here.