Assisting people with a low income to start and maintain their own community kitchens

Q'wlut tu cicut ("My Parents Are Cooking") is a community kitchen program designed to help low-income people to facilitate their own cooking groups. Participants attended 20 weeks of instruction and received practical experience in topics such as meal planning, cooking, communication, and team building. At the end of 20 weeks, each participant was assisted in recruiting other people to start their own cooking group. To support the formation of these secondary groups, program staff and cooking group leaders met every second week for a further ten weeks. Another 30-week session has taken place since the initial session. The program had a high rate of completion. Each of the 24 participants who completed the program recruited an additional two to four people and started a cooking group with these people. Four months after completion of the first session, 80% of participants were facilitating their own cooking groups. After eight months, 50% of participants were still cooking in groups. All participants who completed the program stated that they had met their food- and nutrition-related goals, and they cited numerous program benefits to themselves and their families.