Community Kitchens for Municipal Housing: Children's Aid workers and Social services students are leading the development of community kitchen pilots in each of six social housing developments, each focused on a different population. Sessions emphasize easy, healthy cooking on low-income budgets. By combining the social aspect of community kitchens with group buying and economical recipes, the health ambassadors hope to bridge the gap and create more long-term community ownership and "buy-in" to the message of healthy food choices. "

"It is really great to see families getting excited about trying new recipes. It is not unusual to hear 'I didn't think the kids would eat the vegetables but they loved them.' One mom commented that she was quite surprised how good the whole wheat pasta was, and her kids and partner did not notice a difference from the regular, and she planned to purchase whole wheat pasta in the future."

"None of the ladies or their children had ever experienced fresh pineapple before. They were amazed at how sweet and juicy it was and how different it tasted from the pineapple out of a can. We talked about the price of a pineapple and how to watch for it to come on sale. I showed them how to cut the core and outside off of the pineapple and then they took turns cubing pieces for the fruit kabobs. There was an awful lot of pineapple juice ‘sprays’ around the room from how quickly everyone ate it up."

"This week three centers took advantage of a sale on pork loin roast. Each participant got a large roast and was walked through the steps of cutting it in three sections. One section was used for the sweet and sour pork recipe being prepared that day, and the remaining two sections were labeled, put in freezer bags and placed in the freezer to be used for a subsequent meal. They were surprised how far that $10-12 could stretch."

"The chatter in each of the kitchen surrounded how easy it was to make sweet and sour sauce and what else they could use this sauce with. They each made an Apple Crisp in a Pyrex dish that they took home. Again, many families did not realize how easy it is to prepare apple crisp. We are working on a binder with page protectors for each person to store the recipes and use as a base to add from subsequent community kitchens."

"This upcoming week two centers will be doing "lunchable" turkey roll-ups, tuna melts, raspberry/orange yogurt popsicles and homemade snack mix. This will be great for back to school, but also to show how if they are heading out to the park they can take cheaper and healthier versions of Lunchables™ or take-out."

Click here for more information on starting stroke prevention activities in your community.