QUEENS — Hundreds of Queens foster families will soon have a chance to bond while learning about healthy food and cooking together at a new “teaching kitchen” planned for a Forest Hills-based child welfare agency.
The new facility to be built on Forestdale's 3.5-acre campus at 67-35 112th St., “will serve as a nutritional-education center for Forestdale's 1,500 families and the local community,” the agency said in a statement.
Designed by Studio A+T Architects and Planners, the kitchen will feature two cooking stations equipped with a stove, oven, dishwasher and refrigerators.
“Food is such a great way to pull people together around the table," said Maggie Slane, Forestdale's community development director. "[Families] will be able to cook together, to talk together and to bond together.”
Several instructors will be teaching small groups of families how to shop on a budget and still eat well and how to prepare healthy meals, Slane said.
The kitchen will also provide “resources to fight obesity and promote healthy living among Queens underserved families” and will “expose them to careers in the culinary arts,” the agency said.
Queens, Slane noted, has one of the highest obesity rate in the city, and over 95 percent of the families served by Forestdale live below the NYC poverty line, the agency said.
Some of the vegetables used in the kitchen will come from a garden located within the campus, according to the agency which has been operating since 1854 and provides numerous foster care and family services, including fathering initiatives and pregnant teens programs.
Groundbreaking for the kitchen, which will be built thanks to a $500,000 grant from Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and the Queens City Council delegation, is scheduled for 2016, the agency said.
Forestdale said it has already launched its nutrition program with cooking classes using hot plates. The workshops, the agency said, have been very popular, especially among kids. “Imagine the possibilities with this beautiful facility," said Forestdale executive director, Anstiss Agnew.
“We want to make sure that people have access to wonderful healthy foods and that they know how to cook them," Slane said. "By preparing healthy meals they have the opportunity to learn how to maintain healthy living and combat obesity.”
