Ingredients for this week's Veggie Buddha Bowl at the Mount Paul Community Food Centre. (Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

COMMUNITY FOOD CENTRE

Mount Paul Community Food Centre blending independence and education with free kid’s recipe kits

Sep 30, 2020 | 5:01 PM

KAMLOOPS — Despite COVID-19 limitations, the Mount Paul Community Food Centre has found a way to provide free food education from the comfort of a family’s own kitchen. The centre has been offering once-a-month recipe kits for families, complete with all the ingredients needed to make the dish.

“It was just one way of reaching out to kids at home. Sort of thinking, ‘What could we do, how could be reach them’?” explains Food Skills Coordinator Alexis Blueschke, “and giving them the full recipe, all the ingredients. So there’s no barriers really, it’s just an easy way to come in, access it, and try some delicious food at home.”

The Kamloops location is a partner site of Community Food Centres Canada — a national organization formed to boost food security and knowledge of proper nutrition. Ordinarily, the centre would offer in-person cooking classes for kids and families. To keep up with this community education, organizers have created the kid-friendly recipe kits, which are similar to services such as Hello Fresh or Chef’s Plate.

“The idea is that the recipes are very simple,” says Blueschke, “so kids can do them by themselves or with support of the parents and they’re easy to read, and easy to do.”

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Thanks to funding from TD Bank Kamloops, the food centre can make 100 kits per month. And with no cost of qualifications needed to take part, it’s open to any family in the city.

“I can come and pick up the recipe and the food and I can take it home. I just head off to my office in the back of my house and my daughter cooks dinner,” says Darlene Clark, who came to pick up a kit today. “So she’s getting to take advantage of a program we couldn’t use before.”

After parents sign up, the kits can be picked up one day per month from the Mount Paul Community Food Centre. So far, the veggie-focused recipes have gotten a steady stream of positive feedback.

“My daughter is definitely a sensory kid. So she likes to have hands on, and to touch and to feel,” notes Clark. “And I mean, I’m holding the instructions, but they are really, really simple to go through. My daughter is ten and she hasn’t had any difficulties with any of them. And she’s eating food that if I cooked, she wouldn’t eat. So that’s awesome.”

The meal kits started in June and will be available in October, November and December. Blueschke says they have plenty of recipes in store to bring new flavours to the community.

“October, we’re doing a wonderful recipe, partnering with a local farmer — Dieter Dudy with Thistle Farms — and we’re doing a butternut, yellow carrot squash soup, so it’ll be really yummy and very seasonal.”

To contact the Mount Paul Community Food Centre about signing up for the program, or signing up to volunteer, click here to access their Facebook page.