The kitchen provides a friendly, relaxed environment where participants are able to share their knowledge and skills in food preparation, food budgeting, nutrition and healthier choices and connect with the community. It is a place where people can have a yarn about the everyday reality they face in providing healthy food for their families on a limited income.

The kitchen program encourages participants to try new and different foods and uses healthy ways of cooking. This is reflected in a participant’s comment that she was “trying new foods from the kitchen and cooking them at home and buying them for home”. Being able to take home the left over meals from the kitchen enables families to also try the new foods prepared that day and share the recipes with other family members.

A collection of the participants’ favourite recipes features in the two recipe books produced by the group over the years.

The Koori Community Garden was started to assist the Tharawal community to enjoy healthy food and improve their health, wellbeing and food security. The Community Garden program runs in conjunction with the Koori Community Kitchen on Mondays from 10.30am-1.30pm

The Community Garden is a place to have fun and meet new people, somewhere to get outdoors and try your hand at growing your own food. Fresh vegies grown in the garden and used in the Community Kitchen as part of healthy, tasty meals that are made and shared together.