Community Cultural Kitchen

Photo courtesy of T8N archives

One of the more disappointing trends of the 21^st century is that people just aren’t getting to know their neighbours like they used to. As our city gets bigger, it can sometimes seem like we are becoming less of a community and more of a collection of strangers who happen to live in the same place. This insular behaviour is usually explained away by some combination of fear and lack of effort, but in an increasingly multicultural city, there is also the very real possibility that today’s neighbours just don’t have the common ground needed to start building friendships.

The St. Albert Community Village has taken notice of this issue and is taking steps to fix it. “We were hearing about a lot of incidents in the city,” says Suzan Krecsy, Director of the Community Village. “There were a lot of arguments among neighbours, people calling the police on each other, that kind of thing. We soon realized that the problem wasn’t that these people couldn’t get along, it was just that they didn’t know each other.” And so, in an effort to remedy this situation, the Community Cultural Kitchen was born.

The St. Albert Community Village invited these quarrelling neighbours for a night of cooking and socializing, and it was an immediate success. The neighbours soon learned each other’s names, ended their disagreements and became friends. The participants even called for a second Community Kitchen night. And then a third. Now, on every second Tuesday, one volunteer is selected to teach the group about themselves and their culture through food and conversation, and anyone is invited to attend. At the very least, attendees will get a nice meal, but more valuable is the fact that you get the opportunity to meet your neighbours and start building meaningful relationships with them.

Even if you’re feeling too lazy to walk next door to introduce yourself or think that you’re no good at introductions, there is still hope for all of us to get to know our neighbours. You definitely have more in common with them than you might think. And who doesn’t love food?

For more information and to find out when the next Community Cultural Kitchen night is taking place, you can visit the Community Village’s website here.