Ribbon cutting (photo: Emily Keller)

By Emily Keller

community kitchen project

$72,000 grant given to Community Kitchen Project by city

Nov 21, 2019 | 2:22 PM

The Grande Prairie Friendship Centre and the Salvation Army of Grande Prairie’s Community Kitchen Project collaboration received a $72,000 grant from the city and held a ribbon-cutting Thursday.

The Community Kitchen Project will merge the two separate kitchens in the city to one centralized location to better meet the needs of the community and make a more efficient service.

Len Morisette, President of the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre Board and President of the Alberta Friendship Centres Association, says a lot of positive conversation went into this collaboration.

“It was nice to see two organizations work together to be like, ‘Okay, how do we make our community stronger, and drop our differences?’ and that’s exactly what just happened here today. I honestly feel this moment is definitely a milestone in our city because it shows it can be done.”

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The Collaboration Grant is specifically for groups looking to work together.

Morisette adds that it is currently a six-month trial basis, but they do have funding for a full year.

Captain Peter Kim with the Salvation Army of Grande Prairie says this project came from the creation of a food security committee that he co-started with a few others.

“It was this idea that we need to ensure food security in our community, and that was about sixteen months ago, and so it’s been a while of collaborating and thinking through and brainstorming how we can ensure food security for those in our community. We’re looking at food bank drives, we’re looking at how we reduce waste, but then the idea of actually combining the kitchens together came out, and we thought, ‘Hey yeah, that makes a great idea because we’re building capacity, we’re not duplicating services, and we’re actually working together.’”

Kim says that there will be three meals a day, five days a week, offered in the community kitchen and that it will also give people a warm place to be in between.

The Community Kitchen will officially open on Monday, November 25.