Home :: Community Kitchens

A Glance Around the World

  • Nicaragua
  • Abkhazia
  • India (Sikhism)
  • United States
    • Second Harvest
    • San Francisco

Nicaragua

In 1990, Nicaragua’s Sandinista government lost power, bringing the nation’s cohesive food policy to an end, and initiating a shift away from state-sponsored sustenance institutions toward grassroots programmes. Yet Nicaragua’s economic situation worsened, and its grassroots initiatives struggled to compensate, so Soy Nica established ollas (communal kitchens) to address the local and national problems of hunger and malnutrition. Concerned primarily with soya consumption and cultivation as an alternative to traditional foodstuff, Soy Nica sponsored ollas throughout Nicaragua, including the San Rafael olla. Based in the San Pablo Apostle Christian Base Community (CEB), and run by women, the San Rafael olla co-operated with a variety of associations and included volunteers and recipients of all faiths. According to the olla’s co-ordinator, Juanita Sanchez Villegas, seeing so many skinny children provided motivation for her and other long-standing female parish members to start the olla (Linkogle, 1996:153). San Rafael focussed its efforts on children less than six years old and/or underweight, their mothers and caregivers, future mothers, and the physically disabled. Participants were required to register with the olla and children were monitored for signs of malnutrition and stunted growth. Intending to minimize and potentially eliminate Nicaragua’s dependence on meat as its main source of protein, Soy Nica’s olla intentions were undermined by international food aid. As donations of canned pork and beef arrived, they usurped soya’s staple role and severely impeded the projects goal of shifting towards a soya-based diet.

Abkhazia

Following the end of fighting between Georgia and Abkhazia in 1994, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegated a community kitchen programme to the Finnish Red Cross. The newly established kitchens soon provided hot meals to over 7000 vulnerable urban residents daily, becoming most users’ sole source of sustenance. Focusing on people with disabilities, orphans, elderly, and large families, the program distributed dry food rations on a regular basis. The community kitchens sought self-sufficiency by purchasing the majority of their vegetables locally under the ICRC’s food and agricultural program, and depending on local participants to run each kitchen. Today, the program operates 19 kitchens and provides hot meals to over 3800 destitute people each day, delivering to remote locations with its eight mobile units.

India (Sikhism)

Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, started the pangat (community kitchens) in the late 15th century to encourage the basic Sikh principles of service, humility and equality. Pangats, more commonly known as Langars, are a vital component of Sikhism in which divinely inspired service is practiced continuously through cooking, serving, and cleaning. “Langar is a Persian word meaning: ‘an alms house’, ‘an asylum for the poor and the destitutes’, ‘a public kitchen kept by a greatman for his followers and dependents, the holy men and the needy’” (Singh, p.14). Each kitchen operates out of a Gurdwara (Gurus’ home), and ensures that none go hungry by feeding all who come, regardless of religion or caste. Communities are responsible for the day to day management of their langars, and many devout Sikhs provide foodgrains and income to ensure the kitchen’s maintenance. Today, pangats continue to function as a cornerstone of Sikhism, promoting “the discipline of service and a spirit of co-operation, [and teaching]… philanthropy, [and] equality,” –ideas and practices deeply imbedded in the community kitchen movement (“Sangat and Pangat”, July 2004).

United States:

Over a decade ago, America’s Second Harvest, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a hunger-free America, initiated one of the most extensive community kitchen projects in the United States. Funded by a variety of charitable organizations, the program takes a uniquely multi-faceted approach to community kitchens. Rather than the food recipients taking active cooking roles, low-income men and women train in food production skills, achieving long-term hunger relief. Students receive funding, technical assistance, basic culinary instruction, food safety certification, and job training while preparing meals for the community using donated food items. The ultimate aim of the project is to train unemployed and homeless adults for careers in the food industry. Annually producing 3 million meals and over 1000 graduates with job retention rates of over 80 percent, the Community Kitchen program is established as a progressive and much needed answer to social insecurity in the United States.

San Francisco

Community kitchens in San Francisco arose to meet the needs of immigrants and homeless struggling within a social system suffering from employment shortages, federal welfare cuts, and racism and discrimination against Latinos. Originally organized and implemented by Housing Not Borders, a project dedicated to aiding and defending immigrants and homeless people in San Francisco, the kitchens are meant to educate, empower, and mobilize women. From local restaurants and stores, the kitchens receive fresh produce, prepared food, and a variety of other foods depending on availability. These kitchens continue to encourage community unity through resource pooling, cultural exchange, and social interaction. Resources Used:
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