The Olive Tree unveiled its brand-new commercial kitchen on Tuesday, July 8.
The kitchen, at their food bank warehouse, will serve multiple purposes.
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“It opens up a little bit of space to do other things like cooking classes and things like that,” said The Olive Tree’s COO Jana Thompson, noting the kitchen was needed for operation.
“When we purchased this building, the need for a commercial kitchen was evident,” she said. “Since we are a part of Food Banks Canada and Alberta, we need one to operate.”
Funding for the kitchen came from three different sources. The Alberta government provided $66,137.
“We have a program called CFEP, it’s the Community Facility Enhancement Program. Non-profit organizations make applications to them, then we lobby. I lobby the minister to try to get my projects accepted,” said Garth Rowswell, Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright MLA, who was impressed by the new kitchen and facility.
“That’s amazing, this whole facility they have here now,” he said. “You can see it’s more comfortable to operate. I’m really happy for them.”
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) provided $68,095 towards project.
“ADM always wants to give back to the community anyway it can,” said Derrick Oliver, ADM grain merchandiser. “It’s always good to give back where we can.”
He says the request for funding is put through ADM and they see what they can do.
“They submit a bunch of different applications saying, ‘these are different programs we’re looking for donations for,'” said Oliver. “We submit those on, see where we can help and provide back to the community.”
The new kitchen is already operational.
“We are already utilizing it between gleaning, you can cook down tomatoes, there’s so many things we can do for the food bank within this area,” said Thompson.
The large island offers space for more than just food bank cooking, opening it up for more community programming.
The kitchen will see plenty of use as The Olive Tree averages 808 food hampers a month and $698,018.52 distributed between January and June.
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