Nans’ Kitchen Takeover

Nan’s Kitchen TAKE OVER supports our focus on growing minds and wellness. We foster growing minds by sharing what we learn here with each other and with all who visit. Having Nans as visiting Chefs in our cafe will offer something different. When they cook, they express themselves and many rely on generations-old family recipes. We want to capture this history and provide Grandmas with an opportunity to share their love of cooking with the public. 

Our other goal as an organization is to provide safe and accessible spaces and programs that nurture the well being of our community. This program can offer seniors opportunities to socialize as well as mentorship opportunities for our youth who find it difficult to connect; finding ways to connect and stay engaged in the world around us is a common issue for both seniors and youth. 

It can be hard to preserve that experience walking through our front door as a child, and smelling that special recipe Nans created over the years in the kitchen. What is the best way to try to recreate Nan’s famous meals and desserts?

We are inviting Nans in our communities to come out and join us at Manuels River as guest cooks at Riverside Cafe, to cook and serve their family recipes to patrons. This will be a great opportunity for Nans to share recipes and stories about their lives while helping to preserve our culture. If there are Grandmas who now have mobility limitations but want to participate. We will encourage participation with the support of a loved one who can cook their recipe for them. We believe this is a great program that is truly empowering.

Through hosting Nans as guest cooks at our local cafe we expect to:

• Represent diverse cultures by hosting Grandmas from various cultures.
• Capture a short reel of each of these amazing women and their family recipes.
• Possibly revive old recipes with stories about the dish- they may be funny, sad, or culturally significant.
• Share stores/markets where the ingredients of the recipes can be purchased.
• Host Nans from different communities each week.
• Offer a different, fresh menu item(s) decided not by our professional chefs, but by someone’s Nan, honouring her native cuisine.

Through this program we also want to raise awareness about the representation of women in the cooking field. This program can shed light on the female lineage of chefs; most who may have been inspired by their mothers and grandmothers. 

We will host a complementary seniors’ social on Sunday, National Seniors Day, October 1, 2023 for up to 60 senior nominees.
Our first eight participating Nans will have the opportunity to participate at a Chef’s Station at our annual Chefs for Trails food hike on October 8th.

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