Support Your Community One Frozen Dinner At A Time

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Support Your Community One Frozen Dinner At A Time

Cowichan Green Community’s (CGC’s) commercial kitchen has had a busy spring thus far! Not only have new clients been added to the Meals on Wheels roster, but the amount of prepared meals sold in the reFRESH Marketplace has also increased significantly over the past months. In addition, reFRESH Cowichan frozen meals are now available on Cow-Op.ca - the region’s popular online farmers market.

This means the kitchen, run by Kitchen Manager Tony Monk, is constantly working on creating and packaging entrees, soups & desserts. The kitchen’s work ties in closely with CGC’s Food Recovery Project that picks up surplus produce from five grocery stores in Cowichan. In addition, local farms donate freshly harvested vegetables regularly. As soon as donated produce arrives at CGC, staff sort it and select vegetables to use in the kitchen. Another small portion of the recovered produce from select stores goes into the reFRESH Marketplace, while about 80% is sent to service providers supporting vulnerable community members. This process helps to prevent food waste, and ensures surplus food goes to people first, before being used as feed for livestock or compost.

Based on what is received, staff sort, cook, preserve, and process, often coming up with new recipes on the spot. When the dinners for Meals on Wheels and the temporary housing sites are made, the focus turns to creating meals for reFRESH Marketplace; the Comfort Food Series offers affordable yet delicious frozen meals of great quality easily heated up at home. Turkey Dinner or Vegetarian Lasagna have been just as popular as the Island Curry or Cauliflower Soup.

A special perk of shopping in the reFRESH Marketplace is all proceeds go back into CGC’s programs to increase food security in the Cowichan Region. It’s a great way of shopping at affordable prices while supporting our community!

The reFRESH Marketplace is located at 360 Duncan Street and open Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, and Saturday 10am to 3pm. You can also visit www.cow-op. ca to find a selection of meals and

reFresh Cowichan 360 Duncan Street Downtown Duncan 250 748-8506 Happy Fatherʻs Day!

soups!