Abbotsford Community Kitchen – Food for the Soul
Vancity supports the Abbotsford Community Services Community Kitchen, a space where small groups of people pool their food resources, cook together and take healthy meals home to feed their families.
Having access to a food bank ensures that people living on a low income will eat well, right? Not necessarily.
Staff of the Abbotsford Community Services, who run the Abbotsford Food Bank noticed a disturbing trend in the food that many of the clients using their services were taking home. Month after month, people would choose the same foods; not the most nutritious offerings but the pre-packaged, prepared foods. The staff and the volunteer Board of Directors (including two Vancity staff) sat down to talk about this situation. Although they were providing access to affordable and nutritious food, people who didn’t grow up with the benefit of having watched Mom or Dad prepare meals, had never learned to cook nutritious options. And so, the Abbotsford Community Kitchen was born.