Cooking up caring in a new ‘mud kitchen’

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This article was published 23/07/2018 (2742 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As soon as kids descended on their new ‘mud kitchen’ outside non-profit Thrive Child Care on Sargent Avenue, they began splashing and mixing ingredients for imaginary meals.

The wet play kitchen and a new sandbox are a gift to the inner-city daycare, courtesy of the sales team from Broadview Networks, an information technology company based in Winnipeg.

David Reimer, director of sales and co-owner at Broadview, said designing, building and delivering the kitchen and sandbox as part of a United Way Winnipeg Day of Caring was a way for the team to practise the company’s value of community involvement.

They even included a full set of kitchen utensils, plates, heart and daisy mud molds, and Tupperware for storing left-over mud food.

“United Way Winnipeg has a list of (engagement opportunities), and I picked something we thought we could tackle,” said Reimer, who did most of the woodwork at his home.

“It ties into our corporate value of giving back to the community, as well as team-building. The whole team was involved in the design and the delivery and set-up.”

A United Way Winnipeg Day of Caring is an opportunity for workplaces to volunteer and help a United Way Winnipeg agency partner or non-profit organization complete a project that contributes to local community development, renewal and pride. Building something, painting, helping put on an event for children or cleaning up a community space are common Day of Caring examples.

Jess Smith, director of Thrive Child Care, said she requested the mud kitchen as a United Way Winnipeg Day of Caring project because of the developmental potential it has for the kids.

“Messy, outdoor play develops confidence. It encourages exploration and creativity, and helps parents see that these kinds of experiences are valuable for the children, not just screen time and things like that,” she said.

Smith said many of her children’s families have parents working two jobs and live in inner-city apartments, so they might not have access to messy play activities.

Thrive Child Care is a respite daycare operated by Thrive Community Support Circle, a United Way Winnipeg donor-supported family resource centre that supports families and individuals with therapy and counselling, parenting and life skills classes, men’s wellness, emergency food and baby-supplies and a thrift shop that gives work experience to people with barriers to employment.

— United Way Winnipeg is a 100 per cent local non-profit, working to build better lives for everyone in Winnipeg.