Community Action for Healthy Eating

Tools For Kitchens

SPAN, NLHHP, and the Department of Health wanted to help people in rural or remote parts of Newfoundland and Labrador to organize Community Kitchens, even if they did not have easy access to a dietitian or home economist to help them. They developed culturally appropriate and user-friendly tools for sharing information about Community Kitchens.

The Department of Health, in consultation with SPAN, published a manual on how to organize Community Kitchens. SPAN's hands-on experience was an important resource, and they promoted the manual.

SPAN, in partnership with health professionals, produced a video to complement the manual. NLHHP provided funding for video development. Once the script was developed, the video was taped at the kitchen of Gower Street United Church over a period of a couple of months. By using that location for the video, SPAN showed that a Community Kitchen does not require an elaborate place - it can be anywhere in a community. All members need are some basic utensils, basic staples, and just enough space to work.

Community Health, St. John's Region, provided in-kind support for both the video and the manual through the involvement of a nutritionist. Community Health nutritionists distributed manuals across the province. The tools for Community Kitchen action have been shared at provincial, national, and international conferences. People have since adapted these tools to meet their needs by building on their own experiences.

Community Kitchens have developed across Newfoundland. Corner Brook offers a good example. Dunfield Park is a neighborhood in Corner Brook which includes single parents in subsidized housing. Coleman's grocery store sponsored their Kitchens. Dunfield Park has successfully involved youth: some young people have organized Kitchens. People are also coming together to create community gardens which help to supply Kitchens. Margaret Harnum suggests that Community Kitchens in other places could also benefit from community gardens. In addition to the development of a network of Community Kitchens, she sees community gardens as the next wave in the Community Kitchen movement.