12/20/2017 COMMUNITY KITCHEN - More than MealsCommunity Kitchen is an outreach of Rivers' Edge Community Church.
Since 2009, the Community Kitchen has provided meals, community and comfort as an outreach to the less fortunate in NdG. With servings twice a week at dinner time, of salad - soup - and main course, with dessert, many guests come to spend time with friends, reconnect, and recharge in the company of an accepting and welcoming group of volunteers. When a mechanical failure resulted in a pipe flooding the facilities, a 1-800 helpline and community Facebook page was immediately setup to communicate with the population of guests who were served by the Community Kitchen. This has allowed clients to remain in contact, and to receive updates on a regular basis, despite having very little interaction with the hosting church during renovations and refit. Many clients have little material means, and can only access a toll free number from public payphones. This essential lifeline makes them feel connected to each other and the outreach ministry while the facilities are being repaired. Our very own team has experienced leadership challenges to produce solutions to ongoing concerns raised by practitioners in Social Housing, Seniors Health, Food Security, and Resource Mapping. By combining Scrum and Agile team efforts, to produce team solutions to real problems, we are able to work within a Smart Cities framework and provide an interdisciplinary response to complex concerns facing todays' society.
Our team has engaged in the Global Leadership Experience on two occaisions - in 2014 (Mr Radford), and in 2017 (Ms St Hillaire). Over several days, new teams meet - explore current social challenges - and provide practical options by consensus to promote human flourishing. Not only is this an excellent exercise in teamwork and personal growth, but on subsequent occaisions we are able to tap into a broad network of interdisciplinary graduate students from various institutions (UQAM, McGill, Concordia), and combine practical experience and current methodology across faculties and disciplines (Legal, Engineering, Fine Arts, Policy and Sustainability, just to name a few) For outstanding results, ask us how we may assist your orgnization today! BACKGROUND: In Spring 2013, we produced the resulting VEGi (Vertical Edible Gardening Initiative) Manual on how to make your own vertical edible garden from minimal cost materials. DELIVERABLE: An OPEN SOURCE Manual (and PDF) was produced as part of a competitive course in Urban Agriculture at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (with our setup being in the Concordia Greenhouse.) Using consensus project management, and practical AGILE design skills, the project team was able to prototype a hydroponic growing system in a north-facing exposure (with natural light), that was able to produce spinach, strawberries, chives, parsley and bok choi. The resulting manual is available from NEW COLONY FARM, (as a PDF), and the VEGI project continued at Concordia through to Summer 2017, when it was eventually replaced by other projects. If you would like to request a copy of the VERTICAL WINDOW FARM MANUAL (2013), simply complete the following. |
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