Gabriel's Kitchen needs your support!

Gabriel's Kitchen is a community kitchen run by and serving community members in need, as well as a diverse and growing circle of friends who care about food, equity, nourishment and collective wellbeing.

Since October 2023, Gabriel’s Kitchen has been serving weekly meals made from scratch by a core, ever-evolving team of volunteer cooks, in addition to volunteers who contribute to helping in the kitchen, setting up for service, and cleanup. Our project emphasizes collective empowerment, decision-making and action, and our team includes a diverse group of people from all walks of life, from business owners to liveaboards, farmers, shelter residents, parishioners, community organizers and more, all united by a love of good food, good company and community.

Gabriel’s Kitchen was initiated in honour of our friend Gabriel Bonga, who fed members of the community through his Stone Soup program in Peace Park for five years, and who we sadly lost in a boating accident in 2020.

Our Kitchen is a combination of chefs who have years of professional experience and others who simply like to cook and help out, and together we collaborate on a menu which usually comprises around 5-6 dishes, with a main meat/protein and vegetarian feature, salad or greens, staple food item and desserts. Over our ten+ months of operation, we have gained the reputation of being ‘one of the best restaurants in town’, with menu plans and themes (from Mexican to Mediterranean, Asian and Middle Eastern) chosen by our cooks, all served free of charge (but with gladly-accepted donations).

Gabriel’s Kitchen was launched with the assistance of a VIHA (Vancouver Island Health Authority) Community Wellness Grant in October 2023, and to date has served over 35 full meals to the public, initially at GIFTS (Gulf Island Family Together Society), and presently at All-Saints-By-The-Sea Anglican Parish, where we expanded to meet capacity in the kitchen and serving space. We have served an average of 60-70 people at our dinners, and average around 40-50 at our lunches. We open our kitchen once a week, with a core team — between 4 to 6 cooks, and about 10 additional volunteers — and a volunteer coordinator. Through our program, we have arranged for 9 members of our team to have up-to-date Foodsafe Training and Certification.

Gabriel’s Kitchen has currently completed its (non-renewable VIHA) grant funding cycle, and is arranging for the next cycle of funding for 2025, with an eye towards expansion of the kitchen in a dedicated space. We are presently operating on public and private donations, as well as donations in kind, and need your help to continue serving nutritious, lovingly-prepared meals to the community. We are looking to fund 30 weekly meals until January of 2025, with an estimated cost of $500/meal (which also covers modest honorariums and rents, often supplemented by donations in kind and gift cards).

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ABOUT GABRIEL’S KITCHEN

Gabriel’s Kitchen is a response to looking at many of the particular problems of food insecurity that housing-insecure individuals face, especially lack of access to adequate food preparation and storage space. Departing from the conventional ‘soup kitchen’ model, our project emphasizes empowerment, reciprocity and agency in providing a space where community members can collectively prepare meals to share together. The aim of Gabriel's Kitchen is to move from food insecurity/scarcity towards food sovereignty/abundance through a collective model, where local farmers/growers, concerned community members and others can connect through a framework which infuses the act of nourishment with social meaning and relationships. The project emphasizes sociality and connection as a vital aspect of eating. Building community, fostering relationships and nurturing mental wellbeing are the extended aims of the kitchen.

Our credo and guiding principal is: Everybody eats! This is a vital foundation for the health of our community.

This is an evolving project based on public participation, collective decision-making and collaboration. In many ways, Gabriel’s Kitchen is a relational kitchen, and the project has grown deep bonds between volunteers and diners from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and across generations. Our cooks and volunteers include individuals who live at the local shelter, liveaboards, parishioners, and members of many local organizations. As well, we have been growing relationships with local businesses and organizations, including Rock Salt Restaurant, the Farmland Trust (from whom we received a Grow Local SSI grant), Harvest Kitchen, Duck Creek Farm, Thrifty's, the Social Justice Committee (an interfaith alliance of 4 local Salt Spring churches), the Salt Spring Health Advancement Network, the Mental Wellness Initiative, Transitions Salt Spring, Restorative Justice, the Anglican Parish, the United Church, the Baptist Church and more.

We are currently arranging funding for the expansion of our program. The long-term vision is for Gabriel’s Kitchen to operate on a dedicated, permanent site, and to connect the kitchen to a community pantry and fridge, food gardens, and to incorporate training and educational programs which will connect diverse members of our community, as well as youth and elders, and to generate even deeper connections through local food systems. We also aim to deepen our understanding and practices of how food gets to table, at a time when food prices are escalating astronomically and food insecurity is on the increase (with around 1 in 5 Canadians relying on food banks ) in ways which are significantly impacting families, children, elders and already marginalized communities. We want to increase and spread practices which support our local farmers, engage in increasing networks of sharing food, produce, seeds and knowledge, as well as connect and work with knowledge keepers in continuing to develop indigenous food systems and understanding.

In addition, Gabriel's Kitchen will further operate as a cultural space, a gathering hub where in addition to cooking and eating, community members can congregate and host workshops, music and performance, community circles and talks, and link with other community partners and organisations. In this way the Kitchen creates a platform for people to connect across socio-economic boundaries and address the spectrum of realities that islanders face, fostering opportunities to collaborate and partner on solutions. When people break bread together, hear each others stories, and are exposed to each others' art and music, there is a level of knowing and direct intimacy that can foster understanding, compassion and bonding on the level of personhood. There are opportunities for deeper acts of reconciliation and the nurturing of more resilient, intergenerational and diverse networks within the island community.

Join us at our next meal, come see what we're about, or visit our Facebook page where we post menus and weekly summaries of our meals and gatherings.

Gabriel's Kitchen

Summer Hours:

LUNCH every Thursday from 1pm to 3pm

Meal served around 2pm

All-Saints-By-The-Sea Anglican Parish

110 Park Drive

Shiya'hwt (Ganges), Salt Spring Island

Please contact us if you have any inquiries or donations or would like to volunteer or cook at one of our dinners; gift cards from either of our two large groceries, Country Grocers or Thrifty's, are still and always welcome ❤

Gabriel's Kitchen lovingly prepares and serves food in Shiya'hwt/SYOWT (known by some as Ganges Village), the Hul'qumi'num and SENĆOŦEN name for the ancestral settlement and rightful, unceded territory of the Coast-Salish relations who have lived, harvested, fished, feasted, honoured and celebrated on this land and waters for many generations, and whose present and future stewardship is integral to the healing and flourishing of the place we move and live in. May this spirit honour, hold and inform the work that we do with awareness and respect.

Gabriel's Kitchen on Facebook