The $40,000 in government funding will help the Peter McKee Community Food Centre get their teaching kitchen up and running sooner.
Food Depot Alimentaire President Dale Hicks says the kitchen should be operational by April first, to teach people how to cook healthy meals from raw ingredients.
He adds they also get a lot of products, like fruits and vegetables that are perishable and don’t always get distributed in time.
“Bananas, for example, rather than chuck the bananas out, let’s make some banana bread, or banana muffins,” says Hicks. “Let’s make some strawberry jam, or pies or stuff, pickles, preserves, that’ll be part of the kitchen as well.”
Hicks says at this stage they are planning to hire one full time person in charge of the kitchen, while relying on volunteers to fill out the remaining positions.