Building Strong Communities

Many People come together over food but the opportunity to do this in a public environment is difficult. A Community Kitchen would enable people of all ages, skills and culinary backgrounds to come together and share. The Community Kitchen could be located in a high street location giving maximum awareness, the best public transport access for all and in some cases take up space left vacant and unattractive.

Example uses would be
- Sharing cultural recipes from different groups and backgrounds bringing people together over food,
- simple cookery skills classes for people who want to cook but don't have the confidence,
- healthy cookery for those who want to understand how to eat to lower weight and cholesterol,
- basic cookery and baking for people with learning difficulties adding to their skills and self confidence.

Funding - because of Food Hygiene and Health and safety regulations at least one member of staff would be needed to supervise the use of the location. A deposit should be needed to book the location and only returned if the premises were returned clean and tidy in the same way it was found reducing cleaning and maintenance costs.

Sponsorship from local food producers and supermarkets could help with funding and availability of basic ingredients.
Utilising the Community Kitchen for commercial training and events would also help towards funding costs.

This model could be repeated across multiple boroughs with the obvious flexibility to be used by all cultures and communities.