Proston Community Kitchen members organised a Christmas lunch at the end of last year
Michael Knopp, from the Proston Community Kitchen, with some of the healthy food prepared by the members

July 16, 2012

Kingaroy is to be the latest South Burnett town to launch a Community Kitchen … Proston and Nanango have one, Graham House at Murgon has one, and Wondai will soon have one.

So what is a Community Kitchen?

A Community Kitchen is a group of like-minded individuals who come together on a regular basis (usually fortnightly or monthly) to socialise and cook affordable and nutritious meals.

It is owned and driven by the participants with the support of the South Burnett Regional Council and RHealth’s Community Nutritionist Berneice Hilly.

The Kingaroy Community Kitchen, which is being run in partnership with Centacare South Burnett, will be launched on Wednesday ( July 18) from 10:00am-noon at St Mary’s Church Hall in Albert Street, Kingaroy.

Council has funding via the Federal Government’s Healthy Communities Initiative to support the participants to buy ingredients for up to 10 sessions.

Berneice said a typical session involves the group deciding on two or three recipes they would like to cook, budgeting, making a list and shopping for the ingredients. The group then prepared and cooked the meal.

The participants can then either sit down and share the meal or divide it up and take it home.

The Proston Community Kitchen was established about 18 months ago and has held a number of meetings including a Christmas lunch. The Graham House Community Kitchen was set up last October, followed by the Nanango project three months ago.

Berneice said she was facilitating each group with basic information about healthy eating and how to read food labels. She was also upskilling them to allow them to become self-supporting.

To become involved in a Community Kitchen – or to find out more information – contact Berneice Hilly at RHealth on (07) 4162-5230 or Kerry Oldfield at the South Burnett regional Council on (07) 4189-9412