Teaching & Processing Kitchen
Our kitchen stays busy. We host hands-on classes for children and adults, create healthy snacks, conduct job training, process locally grown seconds and surplus produce, and provide meals to our community.
Teaching Kitchen
The front portion of the Kitchen has three teaching stations equipped with home kitchen appliances.
All of our classes will revolve around fresh, seasonal produce that is locally available. This teaching kitchen allows learners to gain familiarity and knowledge working with whole products and transforming them into healthful and delicious meals at home.
We host cooking classes for all ages including: after school and summer classes for youth, knife skills and food safety for adults, guest chef classes for more advanced cooks, meal planning for families on a budget, and more!
These classes also provide soft skills such as time management, team work, leadership, physical communication, collaboration, inclusion. Please visit our cooking and nutrition education programs page to find more information about these classes!
Processing Kitchen
Did you know that currently 40% of all food produced in the US is wasted? To reduce this, FoodChain’s Kitchen is partnering with GleanKY, area farmers, KY Farms to FoodBanks, and God’s Pantry to utilize “seconds produce” or fresh surplus product that can’t be accepted by typical markets.
FoodChain’s Processing Kitchen Team lightly processes these local fruits and veggies by washing, sorting, chopping, blanching, freezing, pureeing, and more. This step transforms the seconds produce into a more convenient, usable, and accessible product for both home cooks and large institutions, such as public schools.
Processing local produce is an essential and currently missing step towards creating a sustainable and economically viable food system. The bulk of this processing is done in our Food Sector Job Training Program!
Visit our Food Sector Job Training Page and our Processing page to learn more about those programs!
Community Space
An essential role of the Kitchen is its ability to serve as a gathering space for our neighbors and a safe, welcoming place for community development, brought to life through the unifying power of shared food. This Kitchen fosters an environment of inclusion and the formation of shared memories with potlucks, community Meals, and safe spaces to sit, eat, talk, and share
These events encourage celebration through storytelling of the history and culture of this neighborhood as well as recognition and camaraderie of fellow residents.
The Kitchen will be an employer of the community, collect recipes for the preservation of important cultural history, and host chefs and home cooks from the neighborhood to teach classes and lead cooking demonstrations.
Check out our community meals page to see the multitude of ways this kitchen serves as a community space, offering nutritious meals and snacks to our immediate neighbors.
Get Involved
FoodChain’s Teaching and Processing Kitchen is a place for any person to feel welcome, a place to come learn about and share good food with good people. The Kitchen encourages creativity and craft, and is a fun place to meet a smiling face.
Volunteer
At FoodChain there are many ways for people to come and get hands on with the work we do. Check out the opportunities by clicking here!
Intern
FoodChain has a wide variety of intern opportunities for students. To see current offerings visit our Internship page by clicking here!
Donate
Your donation directly funds the work we do for the community. Show your support and donate here.