Community Kitchens Northwest

So how do we encourage our young people to move towards healthy living?  Well, we can start by getting them excited about cooking from scratch, making delicious meals from fresh foods from the farm, and doing this together with friends so it’s FUN!  Read more about what the students think abotu the program!

I personally don’t think so! This Seattle Times article goes through several of the projects that are happening throughout King County around obesity prevention, but the current results are sobering: we’re still getting fatter!  And more concerning is that our CHILDREN are the ones that are gaining more weight, and getting more susceptible to all the dis-ease that comes with it: heart disease, diabetes, which all translates to lowered well being and less vitality.  What are your thoughts about this issue of obesity?  Do you have solutions, ideas, inspirations?  I think we need to change our culture at it’s core, to one that respects every aspect of life!  It starts one person at a time, reconnecting with each other, and reconnecting with nature.  We are all ONE body! (thanks for the inspirational quote KJ!)

We’ve got more community kitchen enthusiasm in Portland, our sister down south!  If you’re in the area, you should go check out their first meeting to brew up the concept!  Learm more about what their doing in Portland!

As community kitchens are growing, more and more people are interested in learning what we are doing and how it relates to the community.  Great that we were acknowledged in the Women’s Day magazine!  Check out the article here.

Check out what’s new for the Fresh Choice Kitchens in Vancouver! They are a great resource and always have great activity around their kitchens.  See their newsletter about superfood!

There is a great new partnership with Swedish Hospital, Public Health, and Community Kitchens NW, bringing fresh food to students at the Ballard High School! Check out this great article that will leave you inspired!

The first Community Kitchen at Seattle Pacific University debuted on Wednesday! Six students cooked alongside eight neighbors. We made mango, black bean and quinoa salad with lime cilantro dressing, an African peanut soup, hearty zucchini casserole with wild rice pilaf, turkey, and other veggies as well as granola with almonds, pumpkins and sunflower seeds. After sharing soup and bread, participants took home 15 servings of food each! We all enjoyed each others’ company and everyone is looking forward to the next Community Kitchen on May 11^th.

We had another great kitchen with our families, inspired by Asian traditions.  We made Shio Yaki Saba, broiled salted Mackerel, Soba Noodles with Peanut Miso Sauce, bok choy salad, sushi rolling, and we also fit in making a batch of kimchi and kombucha!  The theme was based on two requests to cover Japanese food and digestive health in our menu. This worked out pretty easily since there are so many fermented foods in Asian cuisine.  You’ll find the recipe for the delicious Peanut Miso Sauce in our recipe database!

DANNY WOO CHILDREN’S GARDEN PRESENT FRESH
MARCH 30, 20116PM-9PM (with pre-screening reception at 6PM, screening at 7PM)
MEET OUR CHICKENS, LEARN GARDEN TIPS & WIN AMAZING RAFFLE & AUCTION ITEMS
http://dannywookids.blogspot.com/

Seeds of Change, Roots of Power

dannywookids.blogspot.com

The Danny Woo Children’s Garden will be hosting a fundraiser featuring the screening of this amazing film! Stay tuned for more info and business profiles of all our wonderful raffle donors!

This is essentially what happened at our family community kitchen this past Friday.  We tried out a couple new things, with great success.  First, we moved our kitchen to the Union Cultural Center where we had the freedom to cook as late as we pleased, and had the comfort of knowing that our kids were safe and had plenty of space to run wild!  And, with the great energy of our lovely Syreeta, we had a dance class that kicked off the evening so that once people got to the kitchen, they were sweaty, hearts pumping, and ready to cook up some food.  Our guest chef for the evevning was Lois from Oaxaca, Mexico.  He brought in the flare of authentic Mexican cuisine, full force with a cactus salad, traditional rice and beans, and several types of salsas.  We are all looking forward to the next one which will be April 8, the second Friday of the month!