Another Term For Newcomer Kitchen...

 

I am well underway teaching a new spring term with Newcomer Kitchen's 'Willing To Work' food business entrepreneurial program with a new diverse group of women who are moms- a mother-daughter duo from Bahamas, ladies from Taiwan, China, Syria and Afghanistan. Our brand logo is Global Pan- sharing from our collective pan to you, our love of cooking from our cultures 🇧🇸🇹🇼🇨🇳🇸🇾🇦🇫!

With Tamara Chaikin, Newcomer Kitchen's Program Director

We moved and love our new office space at Centre For Social Innovation sharing the same community values! CSI inspires a belief that solutions are possible, inviting everyone, from all sectors and backgrounds, to be a part of the solution because it’s up to us to create a better world. They provide inclusive, over 10,000 sq ft space to supporting newcomers and lower income communities 🙏. And did I mention, they house a free Tool Library too!!!

Our kitchen is now at The Neighbourhood Food Hub. The space beneath a church, is an innovative space-sharing model that prioritizes low-barrier access. The Commercial Kitchen is a fully-certified kitchen suitable for food production for all levels of distribution. We got a chance to cook up a storm in it 👩‍🍳👩‍🍳 with our first experiential learning event for the term- product to market at the Farmer's Market which was held last weekend at Evergreen Brickworks and Leslieville!!

We came up with a lovely picnic brunch menu repping the five cultures of our ladies from Bahamas, Taiwan, China, Syria and Afghanistan. The ladies first profitable event where they learn, earn and divide the $! Woo hooo 🤗!

Sharing a gallery of kitchen photos with the ladies in production mode. Excellent work 🤗!

Chinese Marbled Tea Eggs, one of seven items in our picnic brunch meal.

Touring the Hub space, I was honoured to meet chef Dinah Koo, caterer and author to 2 cookbooks, who made a huge impact in the Toronto's 80s and 90s food scene with Dinah's Cupboard and Tiger Lily restaurant, and she's not slowing down anytime soon. AmaZing 🤗🌸!

Set up as a pop up vendor with our group split over two days at the farmer's markets last weekend, we endured sun, heat, wind, t-storm, rain and cold-  these ladies weathered the elements and did a superb job with a positive attitude and smile 😁!

At Evergreen Brickworks Saturday 8 to 1pm.

It went from normal to SCARY in an instant ⛈😮 (flying produce, collapsing signs, sand in our face)...

 Luckily, the storm hit when we were mostly packed and ready to leave 🚗💨!

Marcella, Intake Coordinator with Newcomer Kitchen wears many hats.

At Leslieville Farmer's Market Sunday 9 to 2pm.

With uncooperative weather and being the Victoria Day long weekend, as much as we wanted to sell well, we need to remember that this was an exercise- the importance goes to learning about what goes into product to market, working as a team and interacting with customers- And the ladies did just that! Bravo 👏👏👏!