Community Kitchens Northwest

Greetings!

There is a LOT going on with CKNW since joining forces with Seattle Tilth.  

Here are the  CKNW-Tilth Coalition January 2012 meeting minutes and the CKNW retreat notes back from December.

Volunteer opportunities: 

• Please take a look at the descriptions and let me know if you have any specific volunteer needs that are different than they are listed here.
• I can see right off the bat that we need to make it more clear the CKNW volunteer opportunities are available beyond just the South Seattle area, this is how it appears as I see it

 Produce orders

• As I mentioned, we are not quite ready to get these orders going yet, but the plan is to have orders available for pick up on Wed
• Check/cash will need to be in hand at the time of pick up, or dropped off directly to Seattle Tilth office
• I will update you once we are ready to open this to CKNW at large

Food distribution

• We received our first order from OSL at the urban farm in south seattle and should have an idea of what is available for CKNW members to pick up in the next two weeks – stay tuned
• The plan is to have a pick up for south end kitchens at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetland (RBUFW) on Weds
• Kate Murphy at HIP in Lake City said that she is able to open up HIP as a north end pick up – stay tuned for how this will be arranged

Evaluation

• At this link you will find a few of the evaluation tools we are using under “evaluation”
• If you would like to include evaluation at your kitchen site – please take a look at these and give feedback. Most are directed towards kids so may not apply directly to your kitchen but get an idea of what we are asking and the layout.

Upcoming meetings

• We discussed having the meetings the 2nd Monday of the month and for 2 hours instead of 1.5 hrs
• April 9, 2012 6-8pm
• July 9, 2012 6-8pm
• October 8, 2012 6-8pm
• Please mark your calenders. Location may vary. I will send reminders and confirmation of location

Monthly updates

• This was a great suggestion from Rachel as a way for everyone to stay informed from our new home at Seattle Tilth. I will look at the best way to do this and likely set a date that this update is sent out and ask for folks to send me their updates beforehand to be included.

If I missed anything that you would like included, please let me know. Thanks again for everyone’s hard work at your kitchen or however you are involved. I look forward to hearing how things are going for the update and will let you know when the ordering/distribution is ready.
 
Thanks,
Leika

By David Eschliman, Assistant Coordinator, Community Kitchen at SPU

What better way to bring in the New Year than with food shared among friends? As a sort of homage to traditional New Year’s party festivities and the upcoming Super Bowl season, the SPU Community Kitchen created foods in authentic party fashion: our formal table meal was replaced by snacks and finger foods prepared and eaten to the sounds of good music as the evening went on. A total of 15 participants made this our best attended kitchens to date.

We made two dips (artichoke and spinach dip, and sweet potato hummus), glazed cinnamon-vanilla almonds, burgers and homemade dilled potato “chips” (thank you, Olsen Farm for your generous donation!). As usual, we mixed things up a bit. Our burger wasn’t a traditional beef patty, but a crunchy on the outside, soft-on-the-inside vegetable-bulgur burger. The two delicious dips we made were served with bread donated by our favorite bakery in Ballard, Tall Grass Bakery. The candied almonds were a huge hit and luckily, a small recipe error resulted in a double batch of almonds, about which no one complained. The evening grazing was topped off with chocolate and peanut butter covered banana pieces, coated with crunchy coconut flakes, and appropriately dubbed by Dr. Geleva “Monkey Bites”. All the participants went home with a quart of fantastic smoky black bean chili and half a dozen cornbread muffins.

The unique format of this Kitchen gave everyone all the opportunity to converse and spend a lot more time enjoying each other’s company. Thank you to all who attended! We are already looking forward to our Valentine’s Day-themed February 8^th Kitchen.

By David Eschliman, Assistant Coordinator, Community Kitchen at SPU

This month at the Seattle Pacific University Community Kitchen took place a week earlier (December 7th) because the students were leaving on winter break. We celebrated the coming holidays with a festive and seasonal meal. All the favorites were represented, updated, and slightly modified, to represent a new and interesting twist on many traditional holiday recipes.

We whipped up some amazing mashed potatoes using Yukon golds and some wonderful winter root vegetables like parsnips and celeriac root. Dr. Geleva created a very special stuffing recipe that was literally the “healthiest stuffing ever”, featuring every food group (mushrooms, onions, and celery, cranberries, two types of nuts, parmesan cheese, and whole grain bread from our favorite bakery in Ballard, Tall Grass Bakery, who kindly donated it to us). For the main course we cooked a meatless meatloaf. And why eat cranberry sauce from a can when we could use fresh cranberries? Homemade cranberry sauce was easier to make and more flavorful than most of us thought. For a sweet side dish we roasted sliced sweet potatoes with maple syrup, brown sugar, and cinnamon. And we got to learn about the difference between sweet potatoes and yams (what we have in the US is all sweet potatoes even if they are labeled ‘yams’ at the grocery store).

Our participants went home with quarts of the “healthiest stuffing ever” and a rainbow bean and whole grain soup. The soup was filled with ten different beans and whole grains, including red lentils, wheat berries, and barley. The soup also ended up with a lot of carrots because the group that worked on it was so focused and efficient, they added to the soup the carrots that were supposed to go in the orange spiced cookies! Fortunately, more carrots only meant a prettier soup and thanks to Heidi’s quick run to the store for more carrots (while unaware she was still wearing her hair net!) everyone was still able to take home a tub of delicious orange-spiced cookies with carrots, currants, and whole wheat pastry flour. Another unfortunate turn was that the meatless meatloaf took longer to cook than expected; but we had a testing of the bean and grain soup instead and took pieces of the loaf home. The soup was very delicious, hearty, and full of winter flavor.

Reflecting on the last kitchen of the 2011, we want to thank all participants, both seasoned veterans as well as the new folks who came out to cook and share a meal with us this month. As the Christmas holiday and the New Year approach, we hope that you all can share these great recipes and memories with the ones closest to you. Let us cherish our loved ones this season, be thankful for all the earth has provided us, and enjoy all its bounty!

By David Eschliman, Assistant Coordinator, Community Kitchen at SPU

To celebrate autumn and all its bounty, this month’s Community Kitchen at Seattle Pacific University featured cooking with winter squash, with its beautiful array of colors and flavors. There were lots of new faces at the Kitchen this month, including some new volunteers. All in all, we had a great turnout (14 neighbors) and our kitchen space was full and bustling with activity.

Heidi, our Community Kitchen Coordinator started us off with some great information about the different kinds of winter squash available and the numerous nutrition benefits of eating them. We also had a brief demonstration of how to peel, cut, seed, and cube a squash. Many of us, including myself, had not much experience cooking with squash on a regular basis, and we were all really excited to dig in, pull out some seeds, and get slicing.

Once we got cooking, everyone was socializing and enjoying each other’s company.  The smell of great food began to fill the air, and before long, we were enjoying an amazing white bean dip with bread donated by Tall Grass Bakery in Ballard. Later, we all sat around the table to enjoy the delicious food we had just prepared, including acorn, sweet dumpling, and kabocha squash (from Full Circle Farm) stuffed with cinnamon-spiced quinoa and garbanzo beans and a fluffy carrot cake made with carrots (from Full Circle Farm), whole wheat pastry four, walnuts and apple sauce. The flavors of the dishes made everyone pause for a moment. 

Everyone took home a quart of creamy carrot and coconut Thai soup, festive rice pilaf bursting with butternut squash and leeks (from Oxbow Farm), celery and cranberries, and a cheesy whole grain pasta dish with lemon-roasted squash and parsley (thanks Farmer Luke), red onion, and feta! A true community experience happened right here in one of our classrooms on campus.

Check out what these mamas are doing!  Making breakfast and lunch for their families community kitchen style!  Read more here!

With a rich biological, cultural and geographic history and one of the largest indigenous populations in the country, Oaxaca is home to spirited farmers movements advocating for their right to preserve the cultural integrity of their food and the diversity of crops such as maize (corn)- historically the primary livelihood of many Mexican farmers. 

Erica Bacon, a lead organizer with CAGJ is heading down to Oaxaca, Mexico on a deligation to learn more about the indiginous food ways and effects that globalization has on their livelihood. ”We will work with and learn from indigenous leaders, farmers, community organizers, and organizations working for food sovereignty, seed preservation, water access, women’s rights, and both trade and immigration justice.  We will be paying special attention to learning about the ways in which trade agreements like NAFTA affect local economies and communities, and how such policies influence the migration of Mexican farmers.’

Read more about her trip here, and support the cause!

I had another adventure out to a food bank here in Brazil!  Again, it´s a little different than what we have in Seattle.  Here, they don´t give food directly to individuals, but only to organizations that serve the community.  The director told me that they have two main objectives for the food bank: 1) support the rural farmers and 2) direct the food waste stream to the people. They had mostly fresh produce that comes straight from rural farmers with a preference for organic produce.  Right now it´s winter, but they still have an abundance of bananas, greens, and oranges!  Of course, they also distribute lots of beans and rice.  The most impressive was the buckets of molasses, processed right on the farm and coming from a small local producer!  Dreamy!

For the past 2 weeks, I´ve been waking up to the winter sun in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Ironically, my husband´s home town in Brazil is home to the world´s most innovative and integrated food policy addressing hunger and social justice.  Yesterday I had an opportunity to tag along with a city nutritionist to observe a Community Kitchen in a local community center referred to as a `house of support` -casa de apoio. This is one project within a greater national program called Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) an initiative started by President Lula in 2003. The Community Kitchen model is a little different than the model we have in Seattle. The city partners with local organizations that already serve the public and hires cooks to provide take home meals for low income families.  There are 4 full time cooks in addition to the nutritionist who was my guide. They start cooking at 6am, preparing about 360 meals that will serve around 80 families that have any where from 1-10 kids each!  Food is officially served at 11am, but the line began to accumulate around 10:30am.  The nutritionist explained to me that the meals rotate on a monthly basis, and everyday consists of beans and rice, a different type of meat, and vegetalbes – two servings!  She explained ´if we don´t serve beans and rice, people would say it´s not a real meal!´ When I asked if they ever used brown rice, she just laughed and said ´they wouldn´t eat it…!´ For just $1.25 dollars a month per person, they are able to come pick up this balanced lunch meal Monday through Friday for one year.  Participants are expected to attend montly nutrition education classes and participate in bi-annual conference meetings where they reflect on the program success, barriers, and ways to improve.  A hugely successful model of food justice created on the needs and involvement of the community it serves!  I look forward to learning more and sharing it here!

Once again, the Seattle Pacific University Foods Lab was lively and energetic, filled with anticipation, an eagerness to learn and to cook, and a general appreciation for the community in which we were about to share. As participants for the community kitchen filed in, SPU Dietetics students welcomed them, took their empty jars, handed out name tags, and invited the returning participants and new faces to socialize before the cooking began.

At 6:10, Dr. Daniela Geleva, founder of the SPU Community Kitchen, announced that meal preparation would begin, and everyone made their way to one of the six recipe stations. Each recipe was led by an SPU student volunteer with the help of several participants, and at least one of the three SPU coordinators would check in to help at some point throughout the night. The focus of each month’s menu is on local, organic, and in-season produce, and the aim is to create recipes and meals that are both healthy and cost-efficient. On the June menu: Fennel Cucumber Avocado Salsa, Melon Salad with Middle-Eastern Dressing, Herbed Green Pea Soup, Spring Couscous Salad, Green Barley and Kale Gratin, and Strawberry Shortcake with whole-grain scones and homemade whipped cream. The Salsa was served as an appetizer, to be eaten during lulls in cooking and times of mingling. The Melon Salad and Strawberry Shortcake were eaten onsite, after all of the food preparation was finished, and the participants took home their now-bursting jars filled with several servings of the couscous salad, gratin, and pea soup.

It is amazing how quickly a few fresh, lone ingredients can be transformed into a beautiful, nourishing, and delicious meal. The community dinner that is shared at the end of kitchen is a favorite time for all involved. It allows the volunteers and community participants to sit down and enjoy the fruits of their labor over good conversation, stories, and laughter.

The joy and gratitude that radiate from this group of people, both volunteers and participants alike, is tangible yet indescribable, and is referred to as almost-magical by community guests who have popped in during various months’ kitchens. The emphasis is on sharing resources, creating wholesome and inexpensive meals from in-season foods, and belonging to a unique community. The process continues to require adjustments as we learn and grow, but the value we have seen in this newly-developed community kitchen is unquestionable.