Volunteers launch community kitchen in 'food desert'

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A group of Dorchester residents has come together to revive their community and address food insecurity. 

Wendy Keats, a Greater Dorchester Moving Forward Co-op board member, said the co-op began in 2017 as the area’s last remaining school was closing. She said they wanted to stop the erosion they were seeing occur in rural communities like theirs. 

“We rallied together and said no we have to rebuild the community,” she said. 

From there, they turned a restored Victorian home in the village into Station8, a community hub that hosts events and workshops, and includes an Airbnb. Volunteers also map and clear local trails where they organize hikes.  

Keats said it was during the pandemic that volunteers realized that food security was an issue in the community as the cost of living increased and food options in the community were lacking, 

“There are no grocery stores here and we have a food bank that’s only open two mornings a month,” she said. 

“We are a food desert.” 

To address the growing need, they launched a community fridge that’s open seven days a week and stocked with healthy groceries to aid those in need. Keats said about 100 come to the fridge each week. 

“We have people that come that never ever thought they would ever need to access any sort of supports,” she said. 

While the fridge has been successful in helping residents, Keats said some of the food ended up going to waste. She said they didn’t have any storage facilities to preserve food or equipment to turn items in the fridge into meals. 

Wanting to be a zero-waste facility and do more for the community, they converted a building on the property into a kitchen with the help of a $45,000 donation from Fredericton’s Brewer Foundation. 

The kitchen passed the inspection for a commercial licence on Monday. 

Volunteers hosted their first teaching kitchen event in the new space on Wednesday and Keats said they also plan to create a cafe where neighbours can gather. Other ideas include launching a small local food shop and hosing a weekly farmer’s market.

“Once you have a commercial kitchen there are all kinds of great programs that you can do around food,” she said. 

“We have some great plans for it. Everybody is just so excited.”