Kitchen remodel helps ministry usher in wellness program
A newly renovated kitchen at a local faithbased nonprofit will be the heart of a new wellness program.
Skyline Urban Ministry's recent Blessing of the Kitchen ceremony drew about 100 people to tour the ministry's refurbished kitchen. Visitors also toured the food pantry and food warehouse run by the ministry, which is an affiliate of Oklahoma United Methodist Conference.
The Rev. Deborah Ingraham, Skyline's executive director, said the ministry's kitchen was expanded and new appliances were installed. She said the kitchen also was brought up to code in compliance with food and safety codes. Ingraham said the kitchen had been a "typical 1970s kitchen" with avocado appliances.
Ingraham said the money to remodel the outdated kitchen was raised before the project began, and volunteers provided most of the labor, which helped keep costs down.
Ingraham said Skyline offers free breakfast and lunch each weekday for older adults as part of its Prime Timers program. She said a free brunch is offered to anyone in the community on each Saturday.
As part of a new wellness program, the kitchen will be used for weekly nutrition classes taught by nutritionists using food from the ministry's food pantry. Ingraham said participants will be
given a recipe card for the healthy dish cooked in the class, along with a bag of food items needed to made the dish.
“Our premise is if we can make healthier adults, we can have healthier children,” she said, adding that the cooking classes will begin March 1.
Ministry evolves
Ingraham said the wellness program was started initially when a nurse began doing voluntary blood pressure checks for Skyline patrons.
“She is often the first person these patrons have ever had time to sit with. Most of them go to the emergency room,” the minister said.
The wellness program is designed to help patrons prevent or better maintain illnesses like hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. Ingraham said the program includes a diabetes support group and movement education like a walking program, chair yoga and other activities.
Another phase of the wellness program will involve gardening.
Ingraham said the ministry aims to teach people how to grow their own produce. Eventually, the ministry will offer a windowsill gardening class and a back porch gardening class and a community garden will be started in about a year.
Meanwhile, the Rev. Greg Tener, superintendent of the Heartland District of the Oklahoma United Methodist Church and a Skyline board member, said he was thrilled to see the ministry continuing to evolve and expand.
“Skyline has just changed in a positive direction over the last two or three years with a new warehouse and now, a new kitchen,” Tener said. “Jesus said we are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and care for those who can’t care for themselves. Skyline is just able to do this so much more effectively than they have in the past.”
Skyline board member Jack Thompson, of Edmond, said he also has been pleased with the way Skyline has evolved over the years since his father, the Rev. McKenzie Thompson, founded the ministry in the late 1960s.
“He saw a need in the community way back then, and it evolved to where it is today,” Thompson said.
He said Skyline is a United Way partner agency that is currently a “gap ministry,” meaning it often helps meet the needs of the working poor who have to make difficult choices between food and other necessities when a crisis arises.
He said the ministry’s current location is strategic because it is in what is considered a “food desert,” with no grocery store within a 5-mile radius.