CKWG made efforts to contact a large number of service organizations, schools, places of worship, community-oriented entities, and a few aligned for-profit entities to find out if existing kitchen spaces are maintained and/or available for shared use. CKWG is responsible for providing a list of kitchens that are available for public use and suggesting appropriate kitchens for individual and community projects. Please contact kitchens directly for information on availability, fee scales, and equipment.
Community Kitchens Working Group is not responsible for:
- Providing information on individual kitchen availability
- Information related to rental/use costs
- Booking/securing the kitchen spaces
- Assisting with and/or signing user/collaborator agreements
Community Kitchen Working Group members are representatives of the following organizations:
Community Kitchen's Working Group
A community kitchen is any kitchen space made available to serve the community by the organization that owns it, or in collaboration with other organizations or individuals. Commercial and mobile kitchens can be located in privately owned restaurants and businesses, religious organizations, nonprofits, schools, and state or city-owned buildings. These spaces give the community greater opportunities to conduct programs related to food security, nutrition, food waste reduction, and food-related entrepreneurial endeavors.
Community kitchens can be used to:
- Repurpose food waste into nutritious meals
- Provide space for entrepreneurs and artisans to grow their food businesses
- Host training programs and educational centers that teach culinary skills
- Build access to healthy food and connect the community to their local food system
- Act as disaster response sites to strengthen community recovery during emergencies
Community kitchens can serve multiple functions, making them valuable assets for small businesses, start-ups, entrepreneurs, food rescue organizations, education and job training programs, and agencies that are embedded in the food system. These place-based food hubs are more accessible and encourage diversity of food programming countywide, ensuring a more resilient food system for all.
Community Kitchen Success Stories
Community Kitchens Success Story
St. Mark’s launched a community kitchen that serves as a hub for teaching, training, nutrition, and food distribution.
Kitchen Activation Success Story
St. Mark’s and Veggie Rescue partner to activate a community food access center to address food access and security.
Food Action Plan Goals activated
Community Kitchen Toolkit
The Santa Barbara County Community Kitchens Toolkit is a repository for valuable resources for community kitchen owners, operators, individuals working in the foodservice industry, and working groups. The toolkit holds forms and guides for kitchen owners and users, health permitting information, food safety manager certification information, templates for meetings, kitchen supply lists, grant applications, suggestions for MOU and facility use agreements, and so much more.
“The Santa Barbara County Community Kitchen Toolkit has been an invaluable resource for my students – and their employers. By working closely with Santa Barbara County Public Health, licensed commercial kitchen operators, and industry professionals, the CKWG has created an accessible, real-time, one-stop guide for utilizing existing and activating new or underutilized shared kitchen spaces. Through this work, we hope to improve the utilization of kitchens and create educational, economic, and collaborative opportunities.”
Ron Lovell, CKWG Member, and Allan Hancock College Culinary Arts and Management Program Coordinator
