Food is a celebration of diversity. No single culture has a monopoly over healthy food. In the Teaching Kitchen, we strive to celebrate diversity through food by preparing meals with starches, vegetables, proteins and fruits from the cultures of the community we serve.
How are we celebrating diversity in the Teaching Kitchen?
- Substitutions: we view recipes as flexible frameworks more than a set of rules, and encourage you to substitute ingredients based on preferences and availability
- Accessibility: we strive to use a mix of fresh, frozen, and canned foods and focus on budget-friendly ingredients.
- Time: not everybody has lots of time to cook. We focus on simple, relatively quick recipes, and recipes that don't have a lot of active time. (Active time means time spend actively chopping, sauteing, mixing, etc. Passive time is when a food is in the oven, or does not require hands-on work).
- Ability: people have different levels of ability and of energy. There is no need to stand while cooking, or to cook a whole dish at once. We try to emphasize how you can make cooking work for you, your energy, and your body.
- Language: we received a grant to translate all handouts into multiple languages. Our content should be accessible to all our patients and our entire community in the language they feel most comfortable with, and we are actively working toward that goal.
- Guest Teachers: we offer classes that are taught or co-facilitated by patients and community members from different backgrounds.
Collaborate with us:
- Do you have an idea of how the Teaching Kitchen can further our efforts to celebrate diversity, and foster equity, inclusion and belonging?
- Are you interested in teaching or co-teaching a class that celebrates your cultural foods?*
We want to hear from you! Please contact us at teachingkitchen@bmc.org.
*Guest teaching is volunteer-only, as we do not have a budget for guest teachers at this point.
News
Nourishing Our Community Featured in Heal Equity Accelerator Year in Review
The Teaching Kitchen was featured in the Health Equity Accelerator's Year in Review which highlighted the work of the teaching kitchen feature and other Nourishing Our Community programs. Read about them in the Year in Review Book.
