The Canadian Community Kitchen Movement

• Brief history
• Regroupement des Cuisines Collectives du Quebec
  (Quebec Collective Kitchens Association)
• *Vancouver Commnity Kitchen Movement
      - Child Hunger and Education Program

Brief History

Diane Norman is commonly known as the “Canadian guru of community kitchens” due to her active involvement in establishing Canada’s first formal community kitchens in Montreal. If Norman is the guru, then Jacynthe Ouellette is the mother of Canada’s community kitchens. In 1984, Ouellette, a single parent on social assistance, started to cook with her sister-in-law and neighbours in order to stretch her limited food budget. By 1986 Norman, a community worker, learned of Ouellette’s informal initiative, and together they founded Canada’s first community kitchen in Montreal. Due to her promotion of efficient time and money management through communal cooking, Norman formally began a movement that rapidly spread throughout the country. Today there are over 600 community kitchens in Quebec, over 500 in British Columbia, and many more established and emerging across the country. Although primarily organized to address financial challenges faced by their members, many kitchens now focus on expanding social circles, multicultural interaction, and building community capacity.Regroupement des Cuisines Collectives du Quebec (Quebec Collective Kitchens Association)In 1990, the Quebec Collective Kitchens Association (QCKA) was formed in order to promote and unity the province’s community kitchen movement. The Association is a non-profit organization that strives to educate the public on the advantages and forms of collective cooking through workshops, training sessions, and newsletters. The QCKA uses the following basic community kitchen model:

• kitchens are comprised of 4 or 5 members
• participants pool their money, time, and resources to regularly produce healthy meals

Vancouver “Community Kitchen” Project

In 1996, the Vancouver “Community Kitchen” Project (VCKP) was formed in order to promote the development of community kitchens. Funded extensively by Terasen Inc., a British Columbia gas company, the project operated out of REACH Community Health Centre, and was run by the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society. Two years after its formation, VCKP altered its mission and began focusing on establishing itself as an educational resource centre dedicated to creating fund raising tools, training programs, and cooking resources. By 2002, the VKCP had grown too large for its host-kitchens scattered throughout Vancouver and its single small office. So, in September 2002, Community Kitchens relocated to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank warehouse in East Vancouver. Today, the VCKP runs workshops, FoodSafe courses, and networking sessions out of its new facility while continuing to support community kitchens throughout Vancouver.Resources Used:

• “Foodshare: Kitchen.” URL: http://www.foodshare.net/kitchen07.htm (24 June 2004)
• Johnson McCooey, Sharleen. “More Power to the Cooks: Women join community kitchens to share food and end up sharing their lives.” Canadian Living. January 1993. URL: http://members.shaw.ca/sjmccooey/kitchens.html (23 June 2004)
• “R.C.C.Q., The: What we do?” URL: http://www.rccq.org/english/rccq.html (6 July 2004)
• “Vancouver Community Kitchen Project: About the project.” URL: http://communitykitchens.ca/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=49 (21 June 2004)