Cowichan Community Kitchens
A community Kitchen is a safe, empowering environment where diverse groups of people can come together to learn and share skills of budgeting, planning, shopping, and cooking healthy meals to take home to their families.
We facilitate kitchen groups throughout the Cowichan Valley. Participants from each group get together twice a month to: plan, budget, shop and cook nutritious meals to take home to their families.
Most groups have 7-10 people in them. The first meeting is 2 hours long and is where participants decide as a group what 4 meals they will prepare, create a budget and split the shopping duties. The second meeting is about 5-6 hours long and is when the cooking happens.
Each person goes home with containers of prepared meals that can be frozen and eaten throughout the month. The food subsidy is based on the participant's need. It usually costs each person between $2.00 - $3.50 (for 4 meals) or 50 - 88 cents per meal.
We actively collaborate with and are supported by: local and Provincial Governments, the Health Authority, social service organizations, service groups, private donors and by the agricultural community.
Outcomes of Community Kitchens
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Individual and Community-wide food security
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Affordable access to healthy food
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Healthier food and lifestyle choices
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Participants pass what they learn on to others and to their children
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Budgeting and shopping skills that can be used in all aspects of life
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Groups form a strong bond of friendship
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Increased physical activity
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New or improved job skills, some becoming paid Kitchen Facilitators
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Social events and a more active social lifestyle
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Peer learning, advocacy and support
Give a family food, you feed them for a day; teach them how to cook, you feed them for generations!
For more information, our recipes, newsletter and information on our Cob Kitchen in Centennial Park, visit us.
www.cowichancommunitykitchens.org
Tel: 250.748.2242 Ext. 134