Chicago Bulls & BMO Harris Bank partner together to help support local Black owned businesses

Image by Eberly Film Lab x Lindsay Eberly

	By Elizabeth Aburto, Reporter, The Real Chi

Chicago is the home to more than a thousand small, owned businesses, and of those businesses is a bakery called Justice of the Pies.  Justice of the Pies was one of six businesses featured on the Bulls Support Local Black Owned Businesses | Chicago Bulls series that highlighted local Black owned businesses who were making a difference in their communities all around the city. Throughout the duration of the pandemic, the series interviewed different forms  of businesses on how they first began, and how their business had impacted their communities. 

 In an exclusive interview, Justice of the Pies owner and founder Maya Camille Broussard opened up about when her business first began, along with how she pays her bakery's success forward in helping local communities & organizations. 

Broussard founded the bakery in 2014, in honor of her late father, Stephan J. Broussard, a former criminal defense attorney who, in her words, had “a passion for baking and eating anything made with a crust.” She explained the intention or goal with her business. 

Image by Eberly Film Lab x Lindsay Eberly

“I consider Justice of the Pies to be a social mission in a culinary art form,” she said. “Our goal is to deliver amazing pies, quiches and tarts while positively impacting the lives of others.” 

One way is through the Justice of the Pies’ program, I KNEAD LOVE, that offers a culinary workshop that offers middle school children from lower income communities the opportunity to learn about nutritional development, cooking skills, and how to express their creativity in the kitchen. Justice of the Pies has previously partnered with The Maria Kaupas Center , Alternatives Youth and Jewish Children and Family Services to prepare meals for communities located near Chicago's South and West Side. However, Broussard said that she was unable to host I KNEAD LOVE during the pandemic. 

When asked whether she believed it was important for organizations with a bigger platform to support other businesses that were not as known Broussard explained, “We believe it is important to support businesses regardless of their stature and try to be intentional in our partnerships by supporting BIPOC and women owned businesses. Our business continues to steadily grow as we put one proverbial foot in front of the other. The goal is to continue to move forward–no matter how far the stride.”