Tag: East Lake Foundation

Atlanta traffic, notorious for being some of the worst in the country, might be the only thing that can keep the Cornbread Sisters apart. A scheduled appointment in the WAREhouse Studios on the campus of The Atlanta Voice was temporarily delayed due to Friday morning traffic, but when they got on the same page, there was something special about their connection.

Toshia Tiller, 57, and her sister Shelia Tiller-Tooks, 55, are the Cornbread Sisters, the founders and owners of the brand of the same name. When they are in the same room they tend to finish each other’s sentences. Having grown up with three other sisters in Atlanta’s East Lake Meadows houisng projects, Tiller and Tiller-Tooks were forever going to be family, but the Cornbread Sisters business makes them even much more than that. They are partners.

Wearing different green Cornbread Sisters-branded T-shirts and matching white jeans, Tiller and Tiller-Tooks started their business alongside childhood friend Judy. Tiller-Tooks’ daughters, Kristin and Cydnee, also help out from time to time. The Cornbread Sisters is a family business. 

“We are representing all women,” Tiller said, owning their own business.

When asked if they planned to wear the branded T-shirts to the interview, they said no, but it never hurts to advertise the business whenever possible. 

“It’s loud. Having the t-shirts on, people always ask us about our business,” Tiller-Tooks said. “Having the shirts on starts conversations.”

Metro Atlanta leads the country with nearly 14,000 Black-owned businesses. The Cornbread Sisters are one of the many led by women. Their late mother, Catherine Tiller, inspired the business, and East Lake Foundation’s Start: Me program was the catalyst for bringing that family recipe for cornbread to the masses. 

The Start: Me program serves Atlanta’s Westside, Southside, the city of Clakston, and the East Lake neighborhood. The latter was once one of Atlanta’s oldest Black neighborhoods. Tiller and Tiller-Tooks grew up there and spoke to The Atlanta Voice about 

“I knew it was going to be serious and beneficial to us,” Tiller said about the Start: Me program. 

Tiller-Tooks said she was excited about the program because, “we were going to be around other entrepreneurs. To see how other people were moving, see what things we were doing right, and what things we could tweak a bit.” 

“I was all in because I knew it was going to be serious and we were smart enough to know what we didn’t know,” Tiller said. 

The program offered the Cornbread Sisters the opportunity to spend time with other business owners who had gone through the Start: Me program. Tiller said it was life-changing.

“It was like a living library for me,” Tiller said. “Literally, you could talk things through in real time.” 

Tiller-Tooks said the Start: Me program continues well past their completion.

“Even right now, we are able to pick up the phone and have someone answer our call,” she said. “We know their name and they know us as well.” 

That education and enlightenment helped improve the business that is the Cornbread Sisters. The product has always been good; learning how to better get the product out to customers has improved. 

A day in the life of the Cornbread Sisters begins with music. Legendary singer/songwriter Stevie Wonder has always been a family favorite, says Tiller, who had moved to Los Angeles before moving back home to Atlanta. Working out of a commercial kitchen space to reduce overhead, the Tiller, Tiller-Tooks, and Judy get started on orders early in the morning. 

Tiller-Tooks starts her days by answering emails, checking the status of orders, and taking or returning phone calls. Tiller books the kitchen for the day, goes to the grocery store to get ingredients for the orders, and touches base with customers. Judy, who both sisters describe as a cornerstone of the business and a do-it-all employee, is the general manager. She too, wears a lot of hats for the Cornbread Sisters business.

“She’s absolutely irreplaceable,” Tiller said of Judy. “Her dedication is quiet, but forceful.” 

Tiller added, “It feels like all three of us are sisters.” 

The three women, and Tiller-Tooks’ adult daughters, do it all. And the business is thriving.

“We’re everything, ” Tiller said of the five-woman crew. “We are the cooks, maintenance, and the social media managers. It’s important for us to learn all aspects of the business.”

Being a women-owned business was important to the sisters as well. Being a Black-owned and operated business run entirely by women makes the Cornbread Sisters even more of a special enterprise. 

“To have a place where we are able to carve out something of our own, that’s important,” Tiller-Tooks said.

“People need more of us,” Tiller said of small businesses run by Black women. “We have the ability to be the boss and a nurturer. Women are needed in all spaces.”  

The Cornbread Sisters’ motto for their cornbread, which is sold in 32-ounce batter buckets and as orders of a dozen bite-sized pieces, is “Not just a side piece. Eat with anything. Anytime. Anywhere!” 

The words “anytime” and “anywhere” mean something different to the Cornbread Sisters from East Lake Meadows.

“When you come from where we come from, they have already written your story,” Tiller said. “But we were brought up in a family that raised us to go forward.” 

“When you come from not having a lot, I always felt like I had to find my own way,” Tiller-Tooks said.

These days, Toshia and Sheila have something that honors the memory of their mother and goes well with a bowl of chilli or your morning coffee.

Looking down at her t-shirt, Tiller said it was about more than just having a successful business.

“It’s important that Black faces are shown,” she said. “We want to represent our people.”

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