News
News
OUR KITCHEN – A TRINITY COMMUNITY FOOD HUB
Background
A recent study (2018) has shown that the Greater Gravenhurst area has an alarmingly high number of individuals affected by poverty, with one in five people living at or below the poverty line. Trinity United Church Gravenhurst, in conjunction with a unique network of several community partners, including Gravenhurst Against Poverty (GAP), responded to this need by supporting efforts to alleviate food insecurity, social isolation and the many other challenges associated with poverty.
In response to these needs, Trinity’s Community Food Hub outreach mission opened our Church doors to the greater Gravenhurst community, and our several community partners, by providing a large kitchen, dining and food storage area, meeting space, all free or at minimal cost, for various programs and social gatherings with food. We enabled our church kitchen to be used as a home base of operation for the preparation and serving of food and meals, meeting the many challenges created by poverty, in a safe and secure setting, without judgement or qualifying requirements.
Pre COVID, over 300 people per week received the benefits of the meal preparation services provided by the many volunteers using our kitchen. As an example, Trinity and Gravenhurst Against Poverty (GAP) volunteers organized, prepared and served a weekly free sit-down community lunch, a weekly free sit-down community supper, as well as a weekly fresh food and produce give-away.
Since COVID restrictions began in 2020 our food preparation and the sit-down lunches, dinners, and meetings have been on hold. In the meantime, a food delivery program has been implemented from Trinity, with free meals, fresh food and produce (provided by local community organizations), being delivered weekly to the homes of over 400 people in the community. When COVID restrictions end, we expect the free community dinners and lunches, organized and prepared by GAP and the many volunteers in our Trinity Community Food Hub kitchen, to resume and expand.
Project Description
There was only one problem - Trinity's kitchen was laid out in the early 1960's to support the occasional food preparation needs of a small community church. By opening the doors of our Church to the community, our Trinity Community Food Hub kitchen was being overworked by the many volunteers preparing and serving meals for the 300-400 at-risk people each week. The implementation of this outreach by Trinity demonstrated the need for major renovations, converting the then current outdated kitchen to a new modern, efficient one, serving the needs of both our community and our congregation.
As a first step in developing a plan, we surveyed our partner users of the kitchen and the volunteers involved in preparing food, serving, clean up, etc. That survey provided us a list of structural, functional, appliance, cleanliness and work efficiency related deficiencies that make preparing food for large groups difficult and inefficient. Taking this information into account, a kitchen planner advised us on the appropriate layout, commercial grade kitchen food preparation and storage equipment, counters, cupboards and serving aids to meet our growing needs.
Several funding sources, both institutional and private, provided the necessary funding which allowed us to accomplish the necessary renovations and equipment upgrades. The institutional sources included United Church of Canada Grants, the most recent being a $20,000 Seeds of Hope Grant in December from the Watkins Fund for Innovative Ministries with Senior Adults at the United Church of Canada Foundation, as well as a $15,000 donation by the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst. These sources were supplemented by a very generous private donor and Trinity’s many congregational and project donations. These sources enabled us to raise the approximately $97,000 project cost. As of this writing, the project is essentially completed. We are looking forward to the removal of COVID restrictions, and to the resumption of provision of food and other services through our Trinity Community Food Hub, in the near future.
Background
A recent study (2018) has shown that the Greater Gravenhurst area has an alarmingly high number of individuals affected by poverty, with one in five people living at or below the poverty line. Trinity United Church Gravenhurst, in conjunction with a unique network of several community partners, including Gravenhurst Against Poverty (GAP), responded to this need by supporting efforts to alleviate food insecurity, social isolation and the many other challenges associated with poverty.
In response to these needs, Trinity’s Community Food Hub outreach mission opened our Church doors to the greater Gravenhurst community, and our several community partners, by providing a large kitchen, dining and food storage area, meeting space, all free or at minimal cost, for various programs and social gatherings with food. We enabled our church kitchen to be used as a home base of operation for the preparation and serving of food and meals, meeting the many challenges created by poverty, in a safe and secure setting, without judgement or qualifying requirements.
Pre COVID, over 300 people per week received the benefits of the meal preparation services provided by the many volunteers using our kitchen. As an example, Trinity and Gravenhurst Against Poverty (GAP) volunteers organized, prepared and served a weekly free sit-down community lunch, a weekly free sit-down community supper, as well as a weekly fresh food and produce give-away.
Since COVID restrictions began in 2020 our food preparation and the sit-down lunches, dinners, and meetings have been on hold. In the meantime, a food delivery program has been implemented from Trinity, with free meals, fresh food and produce (provided by local community organizations), being delivered weekly to the homes of over 400 people in the community. When COVID restrictions end, we expect the free community dinners and lunches, organized and prepared by GAP and the many volunteers in our Trinity Community Food Hub kitchen, to resume and expand.
Project Description
There was only one problem - Trinity's kitchen was laid out in the early 1960's to support the occasional food preparation needs of a small community church. By opening the doors of our Church to the community, our Trinity Community Food Hub kitchen was being overworked by the many volunteers preparing and serving meals for the 300-400 at-risk people each week. The implementation of this outreach by Trinity demonstrated the need for major renovations, converting the then current outdated kitchen to a new modern, efficient one, serving the needs of both our community and our congregation.
As a first step in developing a plan, we surveyed our partner users of the kitchen and the volunteers involved in preparing food, serving, clean up, etc. That survey provided us a list of structural, functional, appliance, cleanliness and work efficiency related deficiencies that make preparing food for large groups difficult and inefficient. Taking this information into account, a kitchen planner advised us on the appropriate layout, commercial grade kitchen food preparation and storage equipment, counters, cupboards and serving aids to meet our growing needs.
Several funding sources, both institutional and private, provided the necessary funding which allowed us to accomplish the necessary renovations and equipment upgrades. The institutional sources included United Church of Canada Grants, the most recent being a $20,000 Seeds of Hope Grant in December from the Watkins Fund for Innovative Ministries with Senior Adults at the United Church of Canada Foundation, as well as a $15,000 donation by the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst. These sources were supplemented by a very generous private donor and Trinity’s many congregational and project donations. These sources enabled us to raise the approximately $97,000 project cost. As of this writing, the project is essentially completed. We are looking forward to the removal of COVID restrictions, and to the resumption of provision of food and other services through our Trinity Community Food Hub, in the near future.
