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Starting a Cooking Group
Adapted from the Fresh Choice Kitchens
website and the "Many Hands" cookbook
There's no cookie cutter approach for starting a CK, but below
are some basic steps people have used to create successful kitchens.
Keep your group in mind as you read through this and make notes
(mental or otherwise) as to how this outline can be revised or altered
to suit your goals.
- Create a small poster/flyer
The poster should briefly describe the concept, encourage interest,
and include contact information. Community centres, schools, and
local gathering places are good spots to display your poster.
Some people even advertise in local papers or newsletters.
Word of mouth is one of the most effective forms of advertising.
Tell everyone you know about what you want to do and you'll have
enough cooks to get started in no time.
- Call a First Meeting
Once you have 4 or 5 interested people, call your first meeting.
Host it in your home or in a public place. Most community schools
will accommodate these types of meetings at no cost. You may want
to present the community facility with general information explaining
what a CK is. This will help them understand what your group is
trying to achieve and they may even be interested in playing a
supportive role.
Contact a community kitchen leader that lives in your area and
invite them to your first meeting. It's always helpful to have
someone with direct CK experience that will help your group discuss
the more challenging issues surrounding communal cooking.
- The First Meeting
The first meeting allows the group to make decisions about their
time together in a community kitchen. It's suggested that you
use this checklist [download
pdf] as a general agenda to guide your group through this
meeting. Consider printing it out for each participant so you
can go through it together. It's also recommended that someone
volunteer to record decisions made and questions that will require
further discussion. Copies of these minutes should be made available
to all members of the group.
After this, there will have been tasks delegated that include
securing a place to cook. In Nanaimo, there are a variety of
choices. Some of the sites to consider are:
- schools/community schools
- churches
- common kitchen areas
- The Foodshare Centre
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The Second Meeting - Recipe Selection and Groceries
Recipe selection can be done a week in advance, a month in advance,
or the day before cooking. Some established groups feel comfortable
enough to choose recipes for the next cooking during the present
cooking. What's important in recipe selection is that everyone
bring recipes that meet the criteria discussed and agreed upon
in the first meeting. Encourage group members to bring favourite
recipes, recipe books, grocery store flyers, and information
on food sales or seasonal foods. Remember that cost
and seasonal availability will work hand in hand with each other.
Keep in mind the length of time each recipe takes to prepare
and cook. Make sure you don't overbook the stove top or oven.
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Grocery Money:
The group will need to make a decision on how they want to handle
finances and it may take a few cookings to find the method that
works best.
Some groups working with a budget agree to bring a set amount
of grocery money each time they recipe plan and hand this over
in good faith to the grocery shopper(s).
In some cases, contributing something other than money towards
the cooking would be appropriate. For instance: garden produce,
frozen meat, or child-minding.
Other groups use a reimbursement method. Whether they use a
per-person or per-portion budget, the cost is divided up once
they meet to cook and all shoppers are reimbursed.
Some kitchens receive food support from their local food banks.
Other kitchens receive donated food support from local retail
or wholesale food distributors. These donations may reduce the
food costs to an amount that's affordable to the group.
- The Shopping
Once your group has selected four or five recipes for the cooking
session, decide whether you need to double or triple the recipes.
This depends on how many portions each person requires. Once this
is determined, you're ready to organize the shopping list and
choose the shoppers. Here are a couple of methods that have worked
well for other kitchens:
- Create one master ingredient list for all the recipes. Divide
the list so each shopper buys a portion, or have people take turns
buying all the ingredients. The list can be divided by food group
to make shopping simpler.
- Create one list per recipe (some ingredients will overlap).
One shopper will be responsible for the ingredients of one or
two recipes. Many groups have one or two designated shoppers who
sometimes take turns.
Storage of perishable items is often an issue which makes shopping
close to cooking time important. Please be sure that the ingredients
for your community kitchen recipes are being stored safely and
at the appropriate temperature (refrigerated if necessary) after
their purchase. You may even find some ingredients are available
from someone's garden or cupboard.
Save all your receipts to make life easier when it comes time
to divide the cost of food or keep a general accounting of cost
per portion.
- The Cooking
Groups cook together every week, every three weeks, or once a
month. Since cooking together means menu planning and shopping,
groups who are making 5meals to bring home often find it too much
to cook once a week. They would rather cook a large number of
meals and cook less often. The majority of groups who cook once
a week share a fabulous meal together at that time. Little, if
any, cooked meals are taken home.
Regardless of how many meals your group is cooking at any given
time, meal preparation and sharing is a rewarding group activity.
Your group is gathered in the kitchen and ready to go. Establishing
a few basic steps will not only increase the group's effectiveness
and success rate but will also increase the overall level of knowledge
and skill within your kitchen.
- Read recipes out loud. This might seem obvious
but many people are in such a rush to get their hands dirty that
they never actually go over what they are about to do.
- Divide up the tasks. Determine who will be
working on what recipe.
- Prepare work stations. Gather all the ingredients,
utensils and cooking/baking equipment that will be needed for
each recipe and set up an area to work in.
- Each participant should read over the recipe again
in order to have the information fresh in their minds. Now don
your aprons, wash your hands, and let the cooking begin!
When you're ready to operate
While it's lovely to stock your kitchen with equipment and tools
right away, for some of us, this isn't possible, nor is it necessary.
The successful kitchen at the Vancouver Food Bank, for example,
began with only what they needed for five planned recipes. They
built up their inventory through donations and careful shopping
as they went.
For an idea of what's usually needed in a busy kitchen, have a
look at the list of equipment in the sidebar. It's meant to be a
guideline.
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