Maurita's Kitchen, located at 66 Queen St. S., seeks to build on the communal nature of food preparation. The kitchen, named for The Working Centre's late board president, Maurita McCrystal, compliments The Working Centre's Urban Agriculture projects by providing a certified kitchen for processing, learning, and gathering around food projects. These projects include:
- Queen Street Commons Café
Maurita's Kitchen is the hub where the food for the Queen Street Commons Café is prepared. Our volunteers prepare vegetarian entrées, baked goods, and desserts. - GROW Herbal Gardens
The kitchen will provide a space for processing harvest from GROW Herbal Gardens and for creating various herbal products. - Queen Street Bake Oven
Foods such as doughs for bread and pizza are prepared in the kitchen and transported to a wood-fired bake oven at Queens Greens Community Garden for baking. - The Commons Market Commuity Supported Agriculture
The Commons Market CSA project provide fresh, organic, and varied produce from local farmers to members of the CSA program. Maurita's Kitchen will serve as a place to process this produce. - Youth Mentorship in Agriculture
Training for youth in Urban Agriculture is supplemented by this kitchen, providing the opportunity to teach food preparation skills to those involved.
Volunteering!
The kitchen offers a practical learning environment, where volunteers make all the meals from scratch. If you wish to volunteer with the kitchen, contact Kaitlyn at 519-743-1151 ext. 244.
Volunteers help bake cookies, cakes, and other tasty treats using natural ingredients. They will also learn new vegetarian recipes, cook with whole foods, share skills, and help produce all of the food for the Queen Street Commons Café.
You can volunteer Monday to Friday from 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm.
Funding for Maurita's Kitchen
Thank you to those who have contributed to the building of Maurita's Kitchen:
- The Ontario Trillium Foundation has contributed $126,000 towards the cost of renovating 66 Queen St. S. and further funding for our new gas range and hood vent.
- HRSDC has contributed labourers and $41,000 for building materials for 66 Queen through a Job Creation Partnership.
- The Cowan Foundation offered a substantial contribution of $30,000 to build, furnish, and equip Maurita's Kitchen.
- ACE Bakery has given $10,000 towards the development of Maurita's Kitchen
Catering
To view the catering menu for Maurita's Kitchen, click here.
