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, complements The Working Centre's Urban Agriculture projects by providing a gathering place around food projects.
Maurita’s Kitchen is a lively hub of activity each day; everyone contributes to help prepare the day’s food, to work cooperatively together, and to practise the importance of including everyone in the work to be done.
- Maurita's Kitchen is the hub where the food for the Queen Street Commons Café is prepared – visit the Queen Street Commons page on our website to learn more about this community gathering place.
- Skill Building – Maurita’s Kitchen is a place of learning – people come with a willingness to learn or to support others. A diverse group of volunteers prepare vegetarian recipes, baked goods, and desserts – and practise the art of creative food preparation. Youth build work related skills, New Canadians practise English skills, those who are typically left out of workplaces join in doing the work of the day, we all learn more about working creatively together.
- Promoting ideas of affordable vegetarian cooking – Maurita’s Kitchen, and the Queen Street Commons Cafe model a way of eating that is affordable, environmentally sustainable and delicious. We practise delicious recipes that can make healthy eating more affordable. We use local food as much as possible, and adapt our recipes around what is available and what is affordable.
- Catering – Catering offers us the opportunity to expand into the community with the conversation around affordable vegetarian cooking, we practise food presentation skills, and we involve the community in supporting this innovative effort in collective food preparation. Those who purchase our catering orders support the work of this creative community kitchen.
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 Berenice at 519-743-1151 ext. 244 or berenicel@theworkingcentre.org.
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.
Catering
Your support for our catering helps to make this creative kitchen possible. We offer a delicious selection of appetizers, salads, wraps, entrees and desserts! For more information, please call us or email us at Maurita’s Kitchen at 519-743-1151 x244 or catering@theworkingcentre.org
Sometimes we have limits in the number and timing of catering orders we can take on – we try to find a balance where outside commitments don’t detract from the creative balance we work towards as we make food and create a community within the kitchen. But don’t let that scare you away – call us and we’ll talk together about what is possible.
