Community Kitchen

The Community Kitchen is just one of the more than 70 social service programs offered at Abbotsford Community Services. Programs in the kitchen help people learn to save money, eat a more varied diet, take an active role in improving their health and wellbeing, and provide opportunities to connect socially.

Since we opened the Community Kitchen in the spring of 2009, there have been so many amazing benefits to people of all ages, cultures and economic status. There are many obvious ones (like learning to cook and save money) but there are hidden benefits as well. We began a cooking program with clients of the Fraser Valley Brain Injury Association in 2011. Many of those clients reported that our classes helped them recover from their brain injury by improving memory, concentration, and patience.

Will you help us continue helping others? With no core funding for the kitchen, we rely on donations, grants, and project funding to stay in operation. Finding money to keep the doors open is a priority for our staff. We could really use your help.

A financial donation of :

• $50.00 could pay for 10 people to attend the lesson portion of a drop-in class
• $75 could pay for food staples and cleaning products for 2 weeks
• $100 could help with equipment repair or replacment

Click on the Canadahelps.org button on the right to make a donation to our Community Kitchen online. Please indicate on the designation drop down “Other” and write “Community Kitchen” in the message box.
Thank you for helping!

The Community Kitchen is used primarily by clients of Abbotsford Community Services, however, outside public groups and non-profit organizations are welcome to rent the facility as well. If outside groups need expertise, they can also contract our staff to lead their programs. To book the kitchen or find out if we have the equipment your group needs, simply e-mail the Kitchen Coordinator.

The Kitchen Coordinator, Mary Margison (Marge) was hired in July of 2009. Since then we have procured a number of items (purchased or donated) that make the kitchen more comfortable and user friendly. We’ve added a freezer, an air conditioner, a 90-second cycle sanitizing dishwasher, and everything a well-equipped kitchen needs. We’ve removed the old electric-coil range and bought a new 5-burner induction cooktop and 4 portable countertop induction units, so up to 8 people can cook at the same time–significantly increasing our capacity as a hands-on teaching kitchen.

The induction cooktop and countertop units we added in 2011 allow us to do more hands-on training than ever before.

Community Kitchen 2009- VanCity cheque presentation lunch.

The Abbotsford Community Services  Community Kitchen is currently being used to:

•  prepare food for nutrition programs,
• as a training facility for cooking classes,
• to prepare food for special events and food-related fundraising activities,
• and to train staff and volunteers in food safe practices.

This ACS staff group used the kitchen for a team-building exercise.

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