Two community organisations recently launched an exciting pilot collaborative initiative.
Access Inc. (Access) and C Care formed a partnership that will see participants in Access’ Introduction to Commercial Cooking course undertaking some of the food preparation for C Care’s meals, which are delivered weekly to community members in need.
Each week, C Care will provide Access with produce (much of it rescued food) and instructions from their chef, which will become the practical component of Access’ Introduction to Commercial Cooking classes. Those classes are aimed at extending participants’ skills beyond domestic cooking to learning about food preparation in a commercial environment.
“As a training organisation, Access is continuously reviewing our courses to ensure they stay relevant and provide practical experience and real world application. Through this pilot partnership with C Care, Introduction to Commercial Cooking participants will be able to practise the skills they learn with the knowledge that what they produce will be used by a professional chef and needs to meet his instructions and standards. It will also offer participants the added opportunity to contribute to food security in our community,” said Access CEO Sharon Malecki.
For Shlomo Nathanson, Director of C Care, this pilot is not only about increasing C Care’s production capacity but also about creating a community response to food insecurity, social isolation and inclusion. Shlomo said “Access and C Care share similar values and we are both thrilled to have developed this project which maximises these synergies and has so many points of potential impact. C Care has always been about the power of food beyond just physical nourishment and through this partnership with Access, each meal that is distributed is a symbol of care, recognition, potential, inclusion, employment, friendship and hope.”
Both Access and C Care see many possibilities extending from this pilot and are looking forward to seeing what can be achieved from this unique collaboration.
Access and C Care gratefully acknowledge major supporter Gandel Philanthropy for their continued investment which helps make initiatives like this possible.