Community Kitchen Pilot Program
Since the beginning of Covid-19, many people in our community have struggled with food insecurities. With the help of our donors, we’ve provided financial support and grocery store gift cards to clients and created a temporary food hamper program thanks to funding from the City of Ottawa’s COVID-19 Social Service Relief Funding. Now we’re preparing to launch a new program that will have a lasting impact – and we need you’re help.
A few years ago, Causeway ran a Community Kitchen Program. This program helped clients identify healthier food choices, find creative ways to stretch their food budget and make healthy meals for themselves and their families. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the program because the funding was cut.
Over the past few months, Causeway social enterprise Krackers Katering has been working alongside Parkdale Food Centre (PFC), helping to deliver food to clients and cooking meals for the Cooking for a Cause initiative.
We discussed with PFC how Causeway could continue to help relieve food insecurity in our community through our partnership. With their guidance, we’ve shaped a pilot program that will help those in need.
And that’s how our Virtual Community Kitchen pilot program was born.
The Community Kitchen pilot program will be a collaboration between Krackers Katering and local supported living residences. Over six months, three cohorts will take part in the program. The cohorts will last eight weeks, and each week, Krackers Katering will deliver prepared meals and ingredients, accompanied by a weekly virtual cooking class that will be both live-streamed and recorded.
The pilot program will cost around $600-$650 per participant, which will provide participants with healthy meals and teach valuable life skills and buy crockpots and Chromebooks for the participants to eliminate barriers to the program.
We’re seeking founding donors to help buy the needed equipment and food and provide additional support to participants. As a thank you, Causeway will provide donors with program updates and links to the weekly cooking classes.
Being a pilot program, this will be a learning experience for us. Over the next six months, we plan to grow and adapt the program to benefit participants. Using the information gathered from the pilot, we will apply for grants to keep this program running for as long as there is a need in the community.
Our goal is to start the program by the end of October, but we need to raise $35,000 for all the necessary supplies. An anonymous donor has already given $30,000 for the program, but we need help raising the remaining $5,000. If we reach this goal, 55 people in the community will benefit directly from the program.
A founding donation goes a long way. For example:
– $50.00 can buy a Crockpot for a participant because many participants won’t have access to a stove or oven.
– $100.00 can provide essential support to program participants.
– $150.00 can buy a participant’s food for the program’s duration, including the nutritious meals prepared by Krackers Katering and the ingredients to make the weekly recipe.
– $300.00 can buy a participant a Chromebook so that they can take part in the weekly cooking classes. They keep this even after the program ends, to help combat isolation and make more services accessible.
To start this urgently needed program by the end of October, we need help reaching our $5,000 goal by October 15th.
If you’re in the financial position to do so, please donate today. You can help create healthier communities.