Interfaith receives grant to upgrade community kitchen

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on May 20, 2023.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Executive director Danielle McIntyre is excited to be able to expand the cupboards and surface space in the Co-op Kitchen at the Interfaith Food Bank.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge has received funding from the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta, to make some additions to the Co-op Community Kitchen.

They received $7,680 with $6,680 coming from the Field of Interest Funds and $1,000 from the Lethbridge Auto Dealers Association.

Executive director Danielle McIntyre said they are super excited to be able to receive the funding needed to expand the kitchen cabinets and counter space in the Co-op Community Kitchen.

“Our project is called ‘Community Cupboards’ and basically that’s exactly what we’re doing. We are going to take those funds and will have to add a little bit of our own, to put in another bank of cabinets into the Co-op kitchen,” said McIntyre.

 She said when they first built the Co-op kitchen in 2018, they gained momentum and it was kept going into 2019 and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

 “And when we were able to re-open it, when restrictions lifted, we found that the user groups had changed a little bit,” said McIntyre.

 She said when they first built the kitchen, they thought it was going to be used for community groups to go in and teach cooking classes and that type of thing, which they do, but now that has changed a little bit.

 “We’re also now starting to see a lot of groups that are coming in and they’re cooking mass quantities of things, so they’re doing big cooks where they will make a whole bunch of lasagnas and shepherd’s pies and things like that for freezer meals,” said McIntyre.

 She said when someone is cooking in bulk like that, they need more tools to make the job go faster, which in turn need a place to be stored.

 “Instead of cutting a carrot with a knife, you’re dicing them with food processors, and they take up a lot of space. We’ve purchased a lot of new equipment to accommodate the new uses in the kitchen, and then our storage room is absolutely full,” said McIntyre.

 She said they no longer have enough room for tables, chairs, and other things needed to accommodate events in the Co-op kitchen, as some of the space is being used to store appliances.

 “By adding this extra set of cabinets, not only will we have storage space for all of those small appliances, but it’ll also give us a surface space for when we do have meetings and groups that are in there, and we can have a nice coffee centre and space to put out the refreshments for the meeting or for the program participants,” said McIntyre.

 She said another benefit from having the extra surface space, is the fact that it can be used during their very busy pancake breakfast during Whoop Up Days.

 McIntyre said the project will begin right away.

 “As soon as we found out that they were going to help us out so substantially, we were like alright let’s do it! So, I would say in the next four to six weeks I should have new kitchen cupboards. Just in time for our pancake breakfast,” said McIntyre.

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