By Sheldon Spackman

Teaching Kitchen Anticipated

Red Deer Food Bank anticipating new opportunities with food regulation changes

Jan 31, 2020 | 11:30 AM

Officials with the Red Deer Food Bank Society are anticipating positive impacts from the provincial government’s announcement last week that it’s changing Alberta’s food regulations.

On Jan. 23, Minister of Health Tyler Shandro announced that starting Feb. 1, Alberta food banks will be able to legally prepare, cook and serve food on-site, provided they have the necessary facilities and equipment.

To this point, regulations have prevented food banks from processing and serving food, meaning they could not easily run a soup kitchen for example.

Alice Kolisnyk, deputy director at the Red Deer Food Bank, acknowledges that the regulation changes will open up new opportunities for food banks.

“We don’t have any immediate plans for becoming a soup kitchen, although we’ve got long-term goals for renovating and building a commercial kitchen for teaching purposes and social enterprise ventures,” she explains. “Our first and foremost goal and responsibility is to make sure our clients are fed through our hamper program and that sort of thing. But adding the teaching kitchen would offer some opportunities for people to learn some basics about cooking and that sort of thing.”

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Kolisnyk notes there are soup kitchen-type services already being run effectively elsewhere in Red Deer.

“The Mustard Seed and Potter’s Hands, and I believe there’s a couple of churches that do as well,” she points out.

Last week’s announcement from the government was part of Red Tape Reduction Awareness Week and also included changes affecting bed-and-breakfast operators.

Previously, bed-and-breakfast operators were only allowed to serve breakfast, while other small lodging businesses were required to invest in a commercial kitchen if they wanted to serve lunch or supper.

Effective Feb. 1, bed-and-breakfasts will now be able to serve their guests meals at any time of day.

This means guest ranches and other similar small businesses will be able to serve meals under the bed-and-breakfast requirements, which officials say are designed to be practical for home-based businesses.

Click here for more information on Alberta’s food regulations.