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Bridging Africans and Black Americans Inc., popularly called BABA Inc, has distributed cooked jollof rice packs to Bronxites. 

Bridging Africans and Black Americans Inc. is a community organization which creates free programs to bring the black communities closer together. 

The gesture, according to its founder, Abdoulaye Cisse, is aimed at respectfully learning, connecting, sharing and working together.

While disclosing this on Tuesday September 29, 2020, Cisse noted that people in the neighborhood came out in multitude to receive the food packs at Ogden Avenue.

"We did it on Ogden Avenue, a high traffic area. There is a bus route, a city bus route that kept coming.

"And we even gave some boxes of food to the bus drivers. People in the community came. 

"They were able to get a free meal on us and, and I felt very good," Cisse said. 

He added that elder people that came was assisted to get theirs.

"So the older man who has a Walker that helps him walk; he was so excited about the event. He said that it made him feel like he had legs again. So that, that was very, very special to us. 

Cisse noted that Vanessa Gibson, the council member for district 16, also endorsed the program.

"She did make a quick stop at the end of it. She was very busy that day, but she did make a quick stop at the end of, at the end of it. We didn't get a picture of her, but she did come," he said.

He explained further that he partnered with a known person in the community to organise it together. 

"The giveaway that we'd done in the Highbridge section of the Bronx was amazing. It went very well. I partnered up with Adama Bah, a well known person in the community. We organized it together.

"We gave out about a hundred boxes of ready to eat until off rice meals. We decided to give away jollof rice meals to the community to celebrate African immigrant heritage month. Jollof rice is the most popular African dish," Cisse explained. 

He continued that even people from outside of the African immigrant community love jollof rice. 

"You know it's a very popular dish and, you know, I thought people would, would like the opportunity to eat it again or eat it for the first time.

He concluded, "Everybody had a good time. So it's definitely something that we'd like to continue doing to celebrate African heritage month. It was really great!"

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