(above) Five people completed a new 12-week cooking and skills program through a partnership between the centre’s Cornerstone Residence and Edmonton Temple, where the commercial kitchen is located

The Salvation Army’s Edmonton Centre of Hope (ECOH) recently celebrated the first graduating class of their community kitchen, a new addiction recovery program that aims to empower participants to thrive through nutrition education. This new initiative, made possible by a territorial innovation grant, teaches students practical skills such as how to understand food labels, storing food safely, knife skills and smart shopping.

“It is wonderful to see that, as the knowledge grows and the skills develop, so also does the participant’s confidence,” says Lt-Colonel Brian Venables, divisional secretary for public relations, Alberta and Northern Territories Division. “They begin to open up and become more courageous in trying new things while helping each other and themselves.”

At the start of the course, the students had varying levels of skills; some had never boiled water, while others had little knowledge or experience. By the end of the program, not only did they learn new cooking skills and nutritional knowledge, but they also presented a variety of dishes for friends, family and staff at a graduation celebration

Nutrition education is often overlooked in traditional recovery programming. As substance abuse can cause irregular eating and a poor diet, the community kitchen program is designed to empower participants to create a healthy food lifestyle for themselves and their families.