The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Charlie Carts provide kitchen on wheels, expanded services
Initiative adds cooking education classes
New kitchens are coming to the Lorain Public Library System Domonkas and South Lorain branches for ongoing culinary initiatives. The unique twist? They’re on wheels.
The library received funds from the Community Foundation of Lorain County to purchase Charlie Carts through The Charlie Cart Project, an initiative out of California that provides equipment and curriculum for educational cooking programs.
With the Main Branch kitchen already set to be upgraded into the new Culinary Literacy Center, Jennifer Black, director of marketing for the Library System, said the carts allow for an expansion of cooking education to commence.
“This is expanding on what we’ve already started, with plenty of room to grow,” Black said.
Opportunity to cook
Sam Lewis, strategic initiatives manager for the Library System, said the opportunity to purchase the Charlie Carts arose after the Community Foundation expressed interest in expanding programming.
The organization already funds the Library System’s Food and Fun programming, which provides children and teens 18 years of age and younger a free lunch.
The youngsters can participate in activities and take food home to their families.
“They take home with them a Blue Apron-esque type thing, so they have the ingredients for the recipe that they can make at home with their families to share,” said Anne Godec, manager of the Domonkas Branch.
Lewis said the success of the program kept the Community Foundation attentive to the needs that the program was aiding.
“The response has been fantastic and so successful,” he said. “The Community Foundation is telling us, ‘What else can we do? Let’s do more.’ ”
Lewis said the Library System researched options and came across the Charlie Carts, which stores over 170 cooking equipment items and 54 lesson plans in its multiple drawers and cabinets.
Some of that equipment includes knives, tongs, spoons, strainers, measuring cups, bowls oven mitts, a Vitamix blender, oven mitts, forks, spoons, convection oven, electric griddle, induction cooktop and pans, to name a few items.
At $10,000 a pop, the carts were ordered about three weeks ago, Lewis said.
The carts came in Feb. 28 and soon will be transported to their respective library branches.
“In the next few months, it’s going to be our staff learning how to use it and test things off,” Godec said.
Before being utilized in the Library System’s summer lunch program for students, she said the cart will make appearances at the branch’s cookbook club meetings and other events.
The earliest the public may see the carts at Domonkas is in June, Godec said.
The cart could be pulled out a few times a month this summer to demo healthy snacks for children to make themselves, she said.
“The things that are available are things that they most likely have at home,” Godec said.
Assessing need
Godec said the food instability of the community that visits the two branches played a huge part in deciding where the Charlie Carts would be best utilized.
Additionally, assessing other health-based needs of the community is important to optimize the cart’s purpose, Lewis said.
“We’re working with the health department to identify the areas of need in the communities, so we can tailor our programming to work on things like diabetes prevention or heart-healthy eating and healthy snack on-the-go for busy, working people,” he said.
Black said with the Main Branch being a City Fresh stop, she hopes children will take what they learn through the Charlie Cart and apply it to any fresh ingredients they may pick up.
Added benefits
Lewis said the cart’s versatility is one of its main selling points.
“One of the biggest issues that we always have when we want to offer new services at our branches, especially a small branch like Domonkas, is that we have a limited amount of space,” he said. “This just complete wipes that out.
“It allows us to work within our small space confines and still do something big.”
Lewis said where previously cooking demonstrations weren’t possible, the Charlie Cart brings a new opportunity to the table.
“It opens up an entire world of possibilities really,” he said. “Before when we did programs, we were very limited.”