Now
Recipe for Community
This Toronto Community Foundation-led initiative is engaging neighbourhood residents young and old to improve the sense of belonging and safety in their communities. It's one way we're improving our city from the ground up, one neighbourhood at a time.
Piloting for Success
Toronto Community Foundation's 2008 Toronto's Vital Signs® Report highlighted a low sense of belonging and safety as key issues for our city. This concerned a Fundholder at the Community Foundation who had deep connections to the Alexandra Park neighbourhood and wished to work with residents to find a solution to help make it a healthier and safer community. In response, Toronto Community Foundation and the Toronto Office of Partnerships brought together Toronto Community Housing and the residents of Alexandra Park in grassroots discussions to imagine neighbourhood improvements. From this, the pilot of Recipe for Community was born.
Alexandra Park
The neighbourhood of Alexandra Park, found south of Dundas St W, north of Queen St W, east of Spadina, and west of Bathurst is the first neighbourhood participating in the Recipe for Community initiative. Recipe for Community is a collaborative project, with Alexandra Park residents working alongside the Toronto Community Foundation, the City of Toronto, and Toronto Community Housing.
Ingredients
Recipe for Community brings together four key "ingredients": food, convening, youth engagement, and neighbourhood beautification.
- An organic vegetable garden has been created in a central courtyard. The garden features a number of spacious plots, two of which are raised to provide access for those with mobility constraints. The garden is watered in an economical and environmentally-friendly way by using run-off rainwater from the nearby apartment buildings.
- An outdoor kitchen, complete with barbeques and portable sinks, provides an easily-accessible, sanitary space for preparing meals and swapping recipes.
Convening
- An outdoor commons area features benches, picnic tables, and bleacher seating, where the community can come together to enjoy a meal, watch a basketball game, or catch up with friends and family.
- A community harvest festival celebrating this neighbourhood investment. Residents from all corners come together to share the garden's harvest and swap delicious recipes.
- A recipe book, created by residents from Alexandra Park, will be a collection of local stories, photos, and recipes that reflect its diversity and its strengths. Residents are working with renowned food writer Marion Kane to collect and test recipes and publish the book.
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The recipe book, entitled A Pinch of This: Recipes from Alexandra Park, is available now and makes a great addition to your collection or that of a friend. |
- Cameras and notebooks in hand, local youth have been documenting the progress of Recipe for Community and are overseeing the development and delivery of the initiative's neighbourhood beautification elements.
Neighbourhood Beautification
- Youth from the neighbourhood have been hired to create custom-made flowerboxes for over 300 housing units in Alexandra Park. They are working with a local contractor to learn the carpentry and safety skills required to make the boxes.
- Local arts not-for-profits are working with the youth to create a number of public art installations to further beautify their neighbourhood, including some remarkable mosaics.
Program Partners
Recipe for Community: Alexandra Park is a true partnership, and at its heart, are the residents of Alexandra Park. It would also not be possible without the generous support provided by many local individuals, organizations, and businesses:
- Schachter Family Fund at the Toronto Community Foundation
- Griggs Family Foundation at the Toronto Community Foundation
- City of Toronto Office of Partnerships
- Toronto Community Housing
- Atkinson Co-Op Board
- Alexandra Park Community Centre
- Arts for Children & Youth
- Red Pepper Spectacle
- Toronto Mosaic
What Toronto is Saying
The Toronto Star:
"Preparing [a dish] with a lively group of residents one recent afternoon in this small sunny room, there's a vibrant enthusiasm and kindred communal spirit that increasingly pervades this tight-knit neighbourhood. We're working on a recipe booklet that's a key component of an exciting new initiative called Recipe for Community. "
Marion Kane, Community recipe project stirs enthusiasm, September 19, 2009 ››
Global News Toronto:
"A community cooking program that makes Toronto the best place to live, work, learn and grow."
Susan Hay, Making a Difference, September 14, 2009 (Video) ››
More Information
Learn more about how you can buy a Recipe for Community Recipe Book ››
Learn more about how you can support Recipe for Community ››
