The kitchen is used to deliver ‘produce-to-plate’ cooking classes in schools. Students and their families learn how to prepare simple, healthy and affordable meals using fresh produce from the school’s vegie patch, or local grocer, and explore how ingredients are used in a variety of cultures. Classes are also delivered to groups of adults, where a specific culture and its 'stories of food' are explored in a more detailed manner, and for corporate clients wanting to explore cultural competency and for team building activities.
All classes are led by locals, giving student and adult participants some real inside knowledge, giving residents an opportunity to gain qualifications and work locally, and giving the region’s businesses a boost at the same time. And all profits are reinvested into community development projects. Many of our instructors have immigrated to Australia and some have never worked here before. As Taste instructors, they gain a TAFE qualification, local employment, a better understanding of other cultures and a lot of self-confidence, and can also give others an insight into their own background and culture through food.
The kitchen is hired on weekends, with the income subsidising the kitchen’s activities in the school. Because it folds compactly into a shipping container, it can be easily transported for events like festivals and food fairs. Within the sector we are sharing our experience of setting up and running a social enterprise. We have recognised the importance of untied funding streams for community development initiatives, diversification of funding for long term sustainability and, most importantly, have seen that social enterprise at a local level has a significant impact on capacity-building and the social cohesion of a community.
Taste Mobile Kitchen cooking, corporate and student classes are not your typical cooking classes. They are a social enterprise designed to strengthen community connections, bridge cultural divides, build community pride, break down negative stereotypes and develop local employment and training opportunities. Taste has established itself as a food business with a social purpose. Effective media relations and social media campaigns assist in creating a media ‘buzz’ about the concept, attracting corporate partners, corporate clients, ‘foodies’ and schools, which assists in shifting perceptions of area and culture, and has a positive impact on how the community views these themselves.
The concept was developed following consultation with the Greenacre community, who told us they wanted a space for local activities. The kitchen resides at Banksia Road Public School in Greenacre, when not in use at other schools or out for hire at events, who wanted to make the school community more accessible to parents and residents. The profit we make from kitchen hire supports our activities to engage parents in this, and other schools, using food to encourage participation and connect parents with each other, the school and students, and to celebrate cultures and area.
