Nutritious food is a critical component of Cool Aid’s work to end homelessness and improve the lives of all of tenants and clients.
Food security plays an increasingly important role in the diverse services that Cool Aid provides to its clients. Over the years, it has become more clear to the Society and its funders that health outcomes are directly impacted by the quality of food and the availability of positive socialization opportunities for our clients, such as shared meals.
As a result, Cool Aid is committed to expanding its food services. The following are some examples of our innovative programs and partnerships.
Local food is not only more nutritious, but it cuts down on the environmental costs of transportation, builds local food security, and keeps the dollars in the local community. Cool Aid continues to partner with initiatives like the South Island Farm Hub’s Farm Bucks program to allow more local purchasing directly from farmers in our region.
We also partner with the Food Share Network and the Mustard Seed on ways to rescue and use food that might have otherwise ended up in the landfill. In 2023, we rescued close to 90,000 pounds of food for use in our food services program.
Cool Aid currently operates two commercial kitchens at our Rock Bay Landing Shelter and at Mount Edwards Court. These operations provide meal services to many other Cool Aid buildings and programs as well as feeding their own residents. Two new developments – Balmoral and Crosstown – will also have commercial kitchens.
Two of Cool Aid’s housing redevelopments will include commercial space and we will be adding social enterprises to provide job skills, income and confidence to some of our tenants. Both enterprises will be managed by our food services team and staffed by tenants. At 210 Gorge Road East (formerly Cedar Grove), we have added a small commercial space for a coffee shop. At the much larger Crosstown development for 3020 Douglas Street (formerly the Tally Ho), we have plans for a food services training program and social enterprise café.
Cool Aid provides some food and a community kitchen program (learning about food) in our newly-renovated kitchen at the Downtown Community Centre.
