2008 National Collective Kitchen Day

Words from Collective Kitchens – for a Fair Share of the Pie!

Montreal – March 18, 2008 – The Regroupement des cuisines collectives du Québec (RCCQ) and 1,400 collective kitchens across Quebec will celebrate National Collective Kitchen Day by inviting the public to come and hear the testimonials of people directly involved.

On March 26, the theme of the celebration is “Paroles des cuisines collectives”, or words from the collective kitchens, and the RCCQ and its members will pay tribute to the 37,000 Quebecers who enjoy the benefits of collective kitchens on a regular basis.

Collective kitchen participants will talk about how the kitchens meet a range of needs from learning how to cook, to saving time, having meals prepared in advance, eating healthier food and enjoying the advantages of cooking together as a group in terms of exchanging ideas, acquiring new knowledge and cutting costs.”

For a Fair Share of the Pie

Since 1995, the number of collective kitchens has risen from 500 to 1,400, a 280% increase. Growing public interest in healthy food is having a major impact on the community organizations that host collective kitchen groups. Additional groups will need to be created to meet the skyrocketing demand. And collective kitchens need government funding.

As the thousands of people involved in collective kitchens have witnessed, research shows that “the collective kitchen program has an impact on many key health-related factors and can improve the ability of members to achieve food security and improve their nutritional health”1[translation]. Nevertheless, “funding for the kitchens is generally weak, irregular and uncertain…Few groups receive recurrent funding”2[translation]. The Regroupement des cuisines collectives du Québec and its 1,400 collective kitchens are urging the government to provide recurrent funding to help support collective kitchens. “Underfunding is a serious problem for collective kitchens…It leads to numerous problems such as staff instability…and having to retrain employees from the start. The search for funding requires enormous time and energy…for meager results. Collective kitchens are performing miracles with the small budgets they have at their disposal…There is no contradiction between flexibility, diversity in organizational models and stable funding”2 [translation].

A Collective Kitchen is…

A collective kitchen is a small group of individuals who pool together their time, money and skills to prepare, in four stages (planning, purchase, cooking and evaluation) meals that are healthy, economical and appetizing. Together the participants choose their recipes, compile the grocery list, and purchase their supplies. They then cook together in a spirit of joy and pride to make meals that they will take home to eat.

A collective kitchen is a wonderful environment for popular education. The values imparted are solidarity, democracy, equality, social justice, autonomy, self-sufficiency, respect and dignity. Collective kitchens are practical and beneficial, and there are collective kitchens for every taste and need: traditional, multiethnic, vegetarian, baby food, health-problem related (e.g., prescribed diets in the case of: diabetes, high cholesterol, etc.) and weight loss-oriented. They are intended for anyone interested in eating healthy food, enjoying better quality of life and getting involved in their community.

This March 26, collective kitchen participants all around the province invite the general public to come and learn about the kitchens. On the program for the day, you can listen to people directly involved with collective kitchens speak about their experiences, and taste some delicious food prepared specially for you!

To learn the date of an event in your area, please contact the collective kitchen closest to you. You’ll find this information on the list of member collective kitchens at the website of the Regroupement des cuisines collectives du Québec.

Research Reports:

1. Evaluation of a Collective Kitchens, Using the population Health Promotion Model. (2004) Tara J. Fano, RD: Sheila M. Tymski, R. Mary A. T. Flynn, PhD, RD, RPH nutr. Health and Disease Prevention, nutrition and Active Living, Calgary Health Region, Calgary, AB

2. Pauvreté et autonomie sociale : les cuisines collectives comme stratégie de solidarité (1998). Relais-femmes, Regroupement des cuisines collectives du Québec.