09/02/2026
"Three non-profit organizations from across Halton and Hamilton came together Wednesday morning to announce a new food security program for seniors, in a partnership that will enable each group to benefit from each other's strengths.
Food for Life, Neighbour to Neighbour (N2N) and St. Matthew’s House launched Collaborative Kitchen, which was made possible by a $98,300 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The program will take fresh rescued food and turn it into ready-to-use ingredients to reduce the work older adults have to put in when dealing with whole foods.
The three non-profit groups had been in discussions over the past year, as they looked into ways to provide seniors with food that works best for them, and the organizers are excited to see the impact that they can make by putting their skills together.
“We recognized that some of the food we were rescuing just wasn’t accessible to seniors,” said Food For Life executive director Karen Randell during the event, held at Neighbour to Neighbour’s Community Food Centre on the Hamilton Mountain. “Some older adults struggle to peel and chop potatoes and carrots or have a hard time getting into squash. We wanted to make things more accessible, and we could only do that by working together.”
As part of the new program, Burlington-based Food for Life will continue to rescue fresh food from farms, grocery stores and other facilities, and will provide N2N with produce that seniors may struggle to use. N2N will prepare the produce and make the food items ready-to-use before St. Matthew’s House uses their delivery network to get the food to those who need it.
Collaborative Kitchen is planning to distribute the food items to more than 500 households and will be using the grant money to purchase the equipment required to run the program and to hire coordinators to ensure the new project runs smoothly.
“I am super proud of this program,” Randell said. “It ensures that folks with mobility and disability issues still have access to good, nutritious food and that they don’t have to limit their choices.”
Representatives from all three organizations were in attendance as they celebrated the launch of Collaborative Kitchen, with volunteers already preparing green beans in N2N’s on-site kitchen to distribute to the seniors who need them.
Andrew Matthews, a representative from St. Matthew’s House, spoke on how the program wouldn’t just provide food to older adults, but also dignity and emotional relief as well.
“We know that we have seniors who are isolated,” he said. “Some of them don’t have the kitchen skills to cook, while others love to cook but may struggle to use tools like a can opener. It seems like a small thing, but I promise you that this is life-saving not just because it gets nutritious food to people, but it enables our seniors to enjoy cooking again without worrying about preparations, clean-up or difficult whole foods.”
Sandy Shaw, MPP for Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, attended the launch of the new program to show her support for what the non-profit organizations are doing.
“The need is not going away,” Shaw said. “What makes me proud of this community is that we respond, we step up and we make sure everyone is looked after. That kind of heart and compassion is reflected in the way the community supports these groups back, and despite it being hard for social services to keep up, these groups do it out of a sense of humanity and compassion.”
Collaborative Kitchen is currently looking into more opportunities for food preservation and transformation, particularly with large quantities of fresh produce like peaches that arrive in bulk for a short portion of the year. Food for Life can now work with N2N and St. Matthew’s House to prepare and freeze the whole foods, to make them available year-round.
All three organizations encourage their donors across Halton and Hamilton to continue supporting them both individually and as Collaborative Kitchen, stating that the work they do was only possible due to the generosity of local residents.
“We’re so reliant on the kindness of our communities,” Randell said. “If people want to support food security for their neighbours, there are lots of ways to lend a hand and we’ll be fundraising throughout the year to make sure we can keep this project going in the future.”
-via Flamborough Today
