On April 20th I visited Marilyn Gunn at Calgary Cooks. This umbrella organization does 600 Good Food Boxes each month, some recycling of food called Spinz Around, responds to emergency requests from the city in disaster situations needing meals, does children s programs which include cooking lessons and nutrition in the schools and has 33 community kitchens around Calgary. These community kitchens are serious affairs with women meeting to plan and budget one day and then returning on another to cook so that they each take home 14 complete meals for everyone in the family for 14 days at a time. This marathon takes 3 hours including clean-up.
Women bring their own lunch and containers to take the food home in.
And then they meet again for the next part of the month. People pay in advance for what they want to take home. It has two 6 propane burner Garlands, refrigeration, sinks, two water tanks under the trailer containing 360 gallons of fresh water and the same for grey water, counters, storage, etc. It is tractor-trailer sized and completely wrapped with a beautiful colourful logo. The trailer is parked often in mall parking lots and gets people talking.