We are looking for about 3 to 4 volunteers to help assemble meal kits for about 2 hours every other week. The kits are assembled at Eden Mennonite Church in Chilliwack, Tuesday evenings from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Volunteers should bring their own masks, as we will be in the basement of the church, and within closer quarters of each other. If you are interested in reading more about the program, please scroll down where you'll find the synopsis.
The Chilliwack Bowls of Hope Society (CBOH) supports 850 at risk children in 23 Chilliwack schools by providing a hot, nutritious lunch every school day. During the COVID-19 pandemic our regular Feed the Children Program has been unable to operate due to school closures.
In order to support the most food insecure families in our schools, a joint initiative with Chilliwack Community Services’ Starfish Backpack Program, Salvation Army Food Bank, Chilliwack School District, Rotary Clubs of Chilliwack, and the United Way of the Lower Mainland, has been established to compile and distribute weekly Feed the Children hampers containing non-perishable food items along with bread, vegetables, and dairy products as provisions are available.
One of CBOH’s mandates is also to provide educational experiences to students on our program around skill development in the area of food preparation. To that end, during Spring 2019, in partnership with the Chilliwack School District and with the support of First West Foundation, the Salvation Army Food Bank and Food Mesh we piloted ‘a hand up style’ program entitled CFUN (Crockpot: Fundamentally, Understand, Nourishment). This program incorporated basic cooking skills using easily obtainable ingredients, following simple recipes using a crockpot to prepare inexpensive, nutritious meals for an entire family. The premise for this program was the hope that giving the students the tools and skills to prepare their own meals would help them to help themselves, especially if they were able to obtain donations of ingredients or able to purchase them at low cost The participants also learned how to utilize ingredients they already had on hand at home, how to use and experiment with seasonings, and at the end of the 10 week program masterminded their own unique recipes using random ingredients available to them during that class. Once they completed the program, they were given a crockpot to take home to continue cooking for their families. This program was well received and to this day we continue to have students and their parent inquire about future programs.
During this pandemic we are offering a hand up to students and their families so they can help themselves. We would also like to find a way to support the many businesses (especially restaurants, videographers, etc.) who have reduced income during this time.
In an effort to provide a low-cost program with maximum impact, we are looking to collaborate with restaurants or other food service providers as well as videographers to develop simple recipes for healthy meals using low cost ingredients, put together packages of the dried ingredients similar to the sample idea attached and create YouTube videos showing students and parents how to prepare the recipes.
Our intention is to find funding for coordination of the program, the purchase of ingredients, labour to produce the packages and film the videos, as well as to cover transportation of the packages for families without a vehicle. Hopefully this will create a bit of a revenue stream for some of our small businesses while having a double benefit of supporting others in the community. We would also seek donations of crockpots which are a safer way for students to cook (though not necessary for this purpose), as well as having the advantage of using less expensive cuts of meat if meat is being used.
The dry ingredient packages could then be matched up with the corresponding recipe, any necessary canned or fresh ingredients and perhaps rice, and be available for pick up. The intention would be to solicit applicants from the schools for these packages, as we would need to determine who would be willing and able to do the required meal preparation as well as provide feedback regarding outcomes and recommendations for improvements.
The result is a healthy, filling meal that could feed 8 – 10 people for $10 - $12, or even less if we can access the ingredients through donations.
Other bonuses include:
- utilizing donations of fresh produce that many times go to waste because we are often limited to donating already prepared or processed meals;
- providing opportunities for skill development so that students and their families learn to cook for themselves, and learn that it isn’t less expensive to eat at fast food restaurants;
- videos are prepared once and viewed many times, lowering instruction costs; and
- businesses would be recognized by the community and draw even more support.
Should this COVID-19 response program be successful, we would consider seeking ongoing funds to maintain and expand the program, when possible after the end of the pandemic, into various opportunities for cooking and leadership skill development at all age levels.
If you have any further questions please e-mail ted.kim@chilliwackbowlsofhope.com
