The Sanctuary kitchen feeds our initiatives, keeping volunteers and neighbors happy with healthy, mostly homegrown whole foods. Sharing meals together deepens our community bond and gives us another avenue for sharing our tapestry of cultures with one another.
Cooking–of whatever kind, everyday or extreme–situates us in the world in a very special place, facing the natural world on one side and the social world on the other. The cook stands squarely between nature and culture, conducting a process of translation and negotiation. Both nature and culture are transformed by the work. And in the process, I discovered, so is the cook.
–Michael Pollan, Cooked
KitchenSanctuary is a cornerstone of the Sanctuary’s day-to-day. In collaboration with the efforts of Collard City Growers, our community gardening collective, the Sanctuary prepares food from seed to table. In line with the Sanctuary’s mission of environmental justice, the KitchenSanctuary seeks to create access to nutritious food in a barren food desert, where economic and environmental barriers have often impeded North Troy community members’ right to a sustainable, healthy diet.
Our kitchen goes into overdrive during our summer youth programming when the Collard City Growers’ garden is in peak production and we have lots of hungry program participants. Uptown Summer participants, ages 15-25, have the opportunity to learn all about their environmental landscape and engage in a sustainable food cycle, making tangible, edible changes with their own hands.
The Sanctuary Cafe, an arm of the KitchenSanctuary operation, is activated for all Sanctuary events. We also host a variety of community potlucks throughout the year, as there is no better way to enjoy food then with friends present, new and old! Potlucks are also a chance for visitors to share their own culinary traditions, and maybe even pass down recipes to be shared with future Sanctuary visitors. KitchenSanctuary creates a space for all Sanctuary visitors to connect and share time together, while taking part in a self sustainable food cycle which seeks to revitalize lands damaged from centuries of industrial pollution.
Want to help cook, donate food, or have some other way you’d like to contribute?
