In 1993, Canada was in the grips of a recession and families were having a difficult time making ends meet. Aware of these difficulties, Marilyn Gunn proposed a plan whereby families with lower incomes could better feed their families for less money.

She proposed that a number of families would arrange a planning session where they would plan a menu, search through grocery store flyers for the best prices and purchase food in bulk. A few days later, the group would come together and cook two weeks worth of food for their families, at a cost saving.

Ms. Gunn presented the idea to a number of non-profit organizations in the Calgary area. However, she was unsuccessful in her attempt to launch the idea at that time.

In 1995, the Thornhill Baptist Church had a great number of families coming to their church in search of food. The church felt that there had to be better ways of dealing with the 'food problem' without duplicating the work of the Food Bank. Seeking solutions to this problem, the church turned to Ms. Gunn for her assistance. Ms. Gunn's plan was revisited and the first community kitchen followed thereafter.

Volunteering as the kitchen coordinator, Ms. Gunn established the first community kitchen. At that first community kitchen, six mothers came together and in one afternoon cooked a total of 357 nutritious meals for 17 people at cost of 52 cents per person, per meal. The process would be repeated on a bi-monthly basis for the next five years. Participants found that they not only saved valuable time and money through the process but they also established enduring, supportive friendships.

Later that year with the success of the first community kitchen, the Action for Churches Together with Social Services (ACTSS) organization started to assist Ms. Gunn with referrals and fund development. A second community kitchen was started later in 1995 with funding provided by the Calgary Foundation.

During the rest of 1995 and through 1996, the Community Kitchen Program was a home-based organization. The program operated out of the Gunn's home, with the home serving as a storage and distribution center.

With the success of the program, the Gunns began working full-time, supporting eleven community kitchens, hosted in the churches or community halls and over $5,000 of food being purchased every month. At this time, the storage and distribution needs of the organization had exceeded the capacity of the Gunn's home and they realized that the organization would need to grow to meet community demand.

Two events in 1997 permitted the organization to grow. First, a 1978 van was donated to the program to assist with the deliveries. The van improved delivery capacity, thereby allowing the program to expand to new locations. Second, the Community Kitchen Program rented a low cost room in a teen drop-in centre from which the program could operate. The total freezer space available at that time was 46 cubic feet, or the equivalent of two small household freezers. The program had grown to 18 community kitchens in Calgary by the end of 1997.

Experiencing ongoing growth, by 1998 demand for the program had exceeded its resources. Distribution capacity was increased, in June of 1998, with the provision of a refrigerated cube van, funded by the Canadian Pacific Charitable Foundation in association with an anonymous Calgary Foundation donor. In 1999, the program rented a 2,000 square foot warehouse space from Canada Lands on the old Currie Barracks to provide for increased storage and distribution capacity. At the end of 1999, 23 seperate community kitchen projects were operating in Calgary.

Also in 1999, Calgary Alderman Joanne Kerr formed a committee to develop a mobile kitchen that could be used for the development of community kitchen programs through demonstrations in 'hard-to-reach' communities. The Calgary's Cooking Mobile Kitchen was, by the end of 2000, providing the Community Kitchen Program with a method of reaching out to people in need of education regarding food and for community kitchens. To date, the mobile kitchen has been used to provide education to children, as a disaster relief resource by City of Calgary, to augment summer feeding programs for low-income children and to establish new kitchens in 'hard-to-reach' communities.

Starting in 2000, the Community Kitchen Program, in association with a number of other agencies, began expanding its services, increasing the offerings through two programs, The Good Food Box Program and Spinz-A-Round Program. The Good Food Box program was a method by which families could save money on fresh produce through bulk buying. The Spinz Around Program was a method of rescuing food that retailers normally throw away and quickly providing that food to extremely poor families in Calgary area. Both initiatives grew from the community kitchen's participation in a committee to resolve the issue of child hunger in Calgary; a problem addressed in a study entitled Feed the Children, initiated by Calgary's Mayor, Al Duerr. Both of these programs operated in partnership with over 40 non-profit organizations in the Calgary area, including the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank.

The Good Food Box launched in March of 2000 with 40 boxes ordered. Participants received fresh produce for approximately one-half the cost in a grocery store. The food is ordered from a wholesaler and savings are passed on to the participant. Today, there are approximately 1000 food boxes delivered each month in the Calgary area with the assistance of over 80 agencies.

The Spinz-A-Round program started at the same time as the Good Food Box program. The program was intended to collect produce, at no cost, that was unlikely to sell despite the fact that the produce was still edible. The program started to collect, sort and distribute free food to community agencies where financially struggling families were likely to frequent. The program grew rapidly and now provides over 16 tonnes of food each month to Calgary non-profit agencies for distribution. The program also had an unexpected benefit. As a result of the food provided, struggling families were more apt to come to a non-profit agency where they could make linkages with social service professionals who could provide assistance in other areas.

By early 2001, the organization had leased 9,000 square feet of warehouse space, including 961 square feet of refrigerated space. In addition, the Calgary Herald Christmas Fund provided the organization with funding for a second cube van and a smaller van, to replace the old 1978 van. In March of 2007, the Community Kitchen Program joined forces with NeighbourLink Calgary and Calgary Eye Way Society to occupy a 48,000 sq. ft. warehouse. This was an exciting, socially innovative collaboration that introduces a radical response to poverty related issues.

Today, the Community Kitchen Program:

• Operates over 35 community kitchens and is in an expansion mode.
• Provides over 1000 boxes filled with fresh produce on a bulk purchase, cost recovery basis to low income Calgarians each month through its 'Good Food Box' program. This program is made possible through over 112 community partnerships.
• Rescues produce each month from food retailers for distribution to extremely low income families, free of charge, through its partnership with over 45 community agencies in the "Spinz-A-Round" program. This program operates in co-operation with the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank.
• Operates many children and youth initiatives in collaboration with many partners including separate, public and aboriginal schools (Souper Stars, Food For Thought, Feeding our Future and Tummy Tamers).
• Works collaboratively with the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank;
• Works with Canada Safeway Limited and the City of Calgary to develop Disaster Relief plans for the city
• Operates the Calgary’s Cooking Mobile Kitchen that provides outreach services to Calgary neighborhoods and works with the Calgary business community to provide hot nutritious meals in schools; while promoting awareness of child hunger in our community.
• Contributes to collaborative networks such as Feeding Calgary’s Children, Food Share, Feed the Hungry and the Best Beginning program, among others, to ensure that non-profit and emergency food services for low-income Calgarians are as efficient and as effective as possible.
• In response to the high demands for continued service and programs the Community Kitchen Program of Calgary has received funding support to purchase a new facility allowing us to continue developing new programs and sustain and expand existing programs.
• Through our collaborative efforts, along with other junior non-profit agencies, we are able to reduce gaps and barriers to service through cross-organizational team work. Building on the premise that it is better to teach a man to fish than breed his dependency on hand-outs, our programs offer a hand-up - building self-esteem, restoring hope and replacing a sence of entitlement with empowerment.