Our F.A.M.I.L.Y. to launch shared community kitchen

ELYRIA — It will be a makerspace, but for culinary. Our F.A.M.I.L.Y., an Elyria-based nonprofit organization, is planning to open a shared community kitchen to both distribute meals and allow for use by entrepreneurs and culinary students. Bobby Taylor, operations consultant for Our F.A.M.I.L.Y., said the organization recently purchased the building at 107 Oberlin Road. The intent of it was to start an early childhood learning center. But within the building was a kitchen that Taylor said the organization wanted to open as a makerspace for food and drink. The COVID-19 pandemic put a delay on the early learning side, but the organization decided to go ahead with a planned summer meal program. "It's really about building on to this strategy of community development called the YES Zone," Taylor said. "... We really wanted to provide meals with our mobile market and we've been in talks with Love Elyria and being a food site for them. All this stuff that's built around getting healthy food and food in general to residents. We're really excited about it." The YES Zone Community Kitchen is a licensed Risk Level 3 kitchen certified by the Ohio Department of Education. YES Zone is an initiative by Our F.A.M.I.L.Y. that is a cradle-to-career community collaborative for residents in south Elyria with wrap-around services. Taylor said the first initiative of the kitchen will be summer meals and then it will be opened up to caterers and food truck vendors — anyone who needs a commercial kitchen that has grown beyond their home kitchen. And then, Taylor said, it will open up to people who want to learn about the culinary arts. People with Our F.A.M.I.L.Y. are working with area residents to get them ServSafe certified and a volunteer with the organization is a part-time chef. For the summer meals, Taylor said the organization is seeking sites and training site coordinators to receive the meals and help distribute. He said the organization is looking for cooks, people to help prepare the food and then drivers. Taylor said he is looking to use a lot of local growers and producers to have local, fresh produce in the menus. The organization also runs a community garden, and Taylor said people who grow there can now bring the food into the kitchen if needed. Our F.A.M.I.L.Y. will not replace current meal programs in the city, but rather adds to what's already out there. The organization is developing its menus to follow nutritional guidelines the education department has in place. "We want to be able to augment what's already out there," Taylor said. "We want to be able to help fill in the gaps." In July, the community meals will kick off and Our F.A.M.I.L.Y. also will begin to offer culinary training to residents and provide hourly rental opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs. Another agency will take the lead on the early childhood center, but Taylor said that when it is able to open, it will focus on newborn to age 3 since Elyria Schools has preschool to kindergarten. Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.