A community organization is hoping to raise awareness about food insecurity through an innovative cooking challenge.
This week, the Malvern Family Resource Centre hosted Kitchens of Malvern. The event had families from diverse backgrounds create culturally relevant tasting menus on a limited budget.
“I have a small family, but to cook my native food is really expensive,” said Biola Bolanle, who participated in the challenge with her son.
“It’s a good time to talk about how difficult things are right now.”
That’s what the Malvern Family Resource Centre is trying to highlight.
The Kitchens of Malvern campaign aims to bring the community together, celebrate cultural diversity and foster conversations on food insecurity. Families in the area were given gift cards to shop for ingredients, cook a meal from their culture and present it to a panel of judges.
“We have a really diverse community in Malvern, lots of people from all over the world,” said Claire Perttula, food justice program coordinator at the Malvern Family Resource Centre.
“There’s also not a lot of grocery stores around, so there are very limited options for where people can do their food shopping.”
The centre hopes the campaign catches the attention of politicians and helps prompt change in neighbourhoods like Malvern, where many families struggle to keep up with rising costs.
“I hope other communities are inspired to have similar events and highlight the diversity they have in their communities and the particular challenges that might exist over there too,” said Perttula.