Community kitchen nights
A shared meal cooked from scratch by whoever shows up, led by two volunteer cooks. You learn a dish, you eat it together, and the leftovers go home in containers we supply.
What to bring →Good food, made together, for everyone on the block.
A free community kitchen in the heart of the neighbourhood. Cook with us on Tuesday nights, grow with us on Saturdays, and take a hot meal home every Thursday. No sign-up fee, no questions about why you came.
Meals shared this year
12,400
Since 2014
Free to join. Always.
Every program is paid for by grants and neighbours, never by the people who come.
Supported by
Bramblewood FoundationTown of Aspen HollowPrairie Grain Co-opThe Kettle FundNorthlight Credit UnionRiverbank Rotary
Programs
Three ways in, one kitchen.
Everything happens in one big room with two stoves, a long table and a garden out the back door. Pick the night that fits your week.
The market garden
Eighteen raised beds behind the hall, tended on Saturday mornings. What we grow feeds the Tuesday kitchen first, and the rest goes on the free table by the door.
Saturday hours →Thursday meal share
Hot meals packed and ready from 4 pm. Take what your household needs. Nobody is asked to prove anything.
Youth cooking club
Wednesdays after school for ages ten to sixteen. Knife skills, budgeting a meal, and a real dinner at the end.
Preserving workshops
One Saturday a month in harvest season. Canning, pickling and freezing what the garden gives us.
A menu written by the room
The week's dish is chosen from what the garden and the food bank have. Dietary needs are on the whiteboard, not in a form.
Almost nothing is bought
Most of what we cook is grown out back or rescued from two grocers who would rather give it to us than throw it out.
Four days a week, all year
Kitchen, club, meal share and garden. Winter moves the garden indoors to seed trays under the windows.
About us
A church basement, two stoves and a very long table.
Aspen Hollow Community Kitchen started in 2014 when six neighbours pooled a grocery run. It is now a registered society with two part-time staff, sixty regular volunteers and a hall of its own.
Run by neighbours
The board is elected from the people who cook here. Half the seats are held by people who first came for a meal.
Open the whole year
We do not close for summer or for the holidays. December is the busiest month we have.
Everyone is welcome
Families, seniors, students, people between homes. The table does not sort people and neither do we.
A hall of our own
Since 2022 we own the building. Every dollar that used to go to rent now goes into the pots.
Partners
The people who keep the pantry full.
Food, funding and hands come from a few organizations who show up every single week.
Questions
Before you come.
Do I need to register or bring anything?
No registration. Bring a container for leftovers if you have one; we have plenty if you do not. Wear something you do not mind getting flour on.
Is it really free?
Yes. There is a donation jar by the door and nobody watches it. Grants and partner organizations cover the food and the building.
Can I bring my kids?
Please do. The kids' table runs on Tuesday nights for ages six and up with a grown-up nearby, and the Wednesday club is for ten to sixteen on their own.
I have allergies or eat halal, kosher or vegetarian. Will there be something for me?
Every week there is a vegetarian main and we cook nut-free. Tell the cooks when you arrive and they will walk you through the pots. Halal meat is used on the first Tuesday of the month.
How do I volunteer?
Come on a Tuesday and say so. We will put you on the roster for the shifts you want: prep, cooking, dishes, garden, driving rescued food, or sitting at the door and saying hello.
Voices
What the table says.
Nobody here is a customer, so nobody wrote a review. These are things people said on their way out the door.
“I came for the soup in January because the power was off at home. I still come every Tuesday. I run the bread station now.
“My son learned to use a knife properly here before I did. He cooks dinner on Wednesdays now and I am not allowed to help.
“We bring the produce we cannot sell. They turn it into forty dinners. I do not know a better use for a crate of bruised tomatoes.
Cook with us this season.
Tuesday at six. The door on the alley side is the one that is open.