Delaware County Mother and Daughter Behind French Toast Bites Featured on NBC's 'Today' Show

A mother and daughter from Delaware County were guests on NBC's "Today" show on Friday as part of the program's pre-Mother's Day coverage. Charisse McGill of Aldan, creator of the popular French Toast Bites snacks, appeared alongside her daughter, Madison, 17, in a four-minute national segment.

The pair run Lokal Artisan Foods together. The business currently operates at Cherry Street Pier and Spruce Street Harbor Park in Philadelphia and at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. It also makes seasonal appearances at the Christmas Village and Eastern State Penitentiary.

McGill, 41, previously worked as director of special events at Valley Forge Military Academy and organized the Lansdale Farmers' Market on the side. Seeing the vendors there, some of whom were earning six figures, inspired her to build a food business of her own. She settled on sweet pieces of French toast, a concept she kept simple, focused and easy to replicate.

Around that time, Madison said she wanted to start a business too, perhaps a lemonade stand at the market. Her mother pointed out that lemons are not local. Madison responded that she would buy other fruit and herbs from the market's farmers to give the drink a local twist. The stand was an immediate success, and Madison earned $6,000 in two weeks. "That gave me more of a drive to start my own business," Charisse McGill said.

She left the military academy and launched Lokal Artisan Foods in 2018 with a holiday-season pop-up near City Hall. Madison, then 12, was her investor. In 2019, the family began bottling a French toast spice as a line extension.

Growth continued with stands at the Philadelphia Premium Outlets in Montgomery County, an appearance at the Bronx Night Market in New York and a return to the holiday market. Throughout, McGill taught entrepreneurship classes at Montgomery County Community College.

She also built a takeout and delivery operation out of the Northeast Philadelphia location of the Better Box, another Black-owned food business, and became the first paid vendor on the Black and Mobile delivery service. Her funding has come from several sources: she was one of 60 recipients of a Black People Eats grant, met her funding goal through a community Kiva loan, received a Magic Johnson forgivable loan and won a grant from the Pennsylvania30 Day Fund. Most recently, she was chosen for the Sixers' Buy Black Program.

The business has since expanded into beverages, adding a beer made in partnership with Yards Brewing Co. and coffee with Bean2Bean Roasters.

French toast, often topped with items such as bacon and whipped cream, is traditionally a breakfast dish, but McGill told the camera that Philadelphia customers buy it at a different time of day. "In Philly, we sell more French toast bites at night when the sun goes down," she said.

Madison, for her part, described the upside of working with her mother. "It's pretty fun having my mom as a coworker because I can kind of tell her what to do," she told the show.