The Community Kitchen

Volunteers package bread, pastries, and fresh fruit and vegetables to be distributed to over 60 families a day.  That’s more than 18,000 bags of groceries per year.

 
You Can Help!

Give your time.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of The Salvation Army ministry. If you would like to donate your time, visit the volunteer page.

Give your surplus.

We could not feed hungry people without the support of local businesses. If you can donate food or goods, please call us at 604-852-9305. We will be happy to arrange a one-time or ongoing pickup of anything that we can use to help in our mission.

Give financial support.

The number of people coming in to the Care and Share Centre has increased dramatically – we are now serving nearly twice as many as we did just one year ago. This ever-growing demand stretches not only our volunteers and staff but our financial resources as well. If you can help financially, please drop in, or mail your donation to:

The Salvation Army
34081 Gladys Avenue
Abbotsford, BC
V2S 2E8

Donate now using our secure donations site.

On any weekday, people can have a nutritious and satisfying lunch at the Meal Centre. However, many of the people we serve are seeking more independence. They may board somewhere or live in a hotel room with no access to a kitchen or even a refrigerator, but as long as they have electricity, they can plug in an electric frying pan. The Community Kitchen program teaches them how to cook nutritiously; it's amazing what you can make in one pan. The participants learn how to make complete, healthy meals which they take home to feed their families.

Group dynamics are a second benefit of the Community Kitchen concept. A group consists of the instructor, a couple of volunteers, and eight participants who meet once a week. As well as learning to cook, those eight people draw together, support each other, build trust, and experience community. They learn that they do not have to face their difficulties alone. Spirituality is built into their lives right where they are as they participate in devotional times and share prayer requests.

The Community Kitchen started as a door to teach literacy. As we offered people a chance to learn to cook, they soon realized that they needed to read if they were going to follow recipes or go shopping for ingredients. Literacy is still part of the program on a coaching basis as the need arises.

The Breakfast Club

As people come to their Community Kitchen group and begin to feel comfortable with the setting and with their new skills, we encourage them to take what they are learning and use it to help others. They progress to a new step – the Breakfast Club. This involves coming to the Care and Share Centre in the afternoon to do preparations, and then the next morning, helping to cook breakfast for the people who come to the Redemption Cafe Drop-In Centre. This is a reminder that life is about more than getting; it is also about giving.

 Community Kitchen to Go

It important to us that we stay in contact with the people who have been in Community Kitchen groups. We don’t want to just teach them some skills and then send them out to fend for themselves. Many of these people have been caught in a vicious cycle, and they need help and support to break free. Through Community Kitchen to Go, we assist them with some of the staples they need to cook for themselves and their families. From the donated food that we receive, we can give them ingredients for their menus as they move into interdependence. More important than the food, however, is the opportunity to build into their lives. We sit down and talk with them, find out how things are going, and whenever possible, we look for the doors to provide even more help – counselling for a family member, referrals to drug and alcohol abuse programs, and many other ways to bring wholeness to their lives.